A High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Tuesday, sentenced a 39-year-old labourer, Mohammed Ibrahim, to death by hanging for the murder of a two-year-old child.
The convict was also found guilty for attempting to kill one Rabi Yakubu and was accordingly sentenced to life imprisonment.
Ibrahim was tried and convicted on two counts of murder and attempted murder.
Justice Ayokunle Rotimi-Balogun held that the prosecution had proved the charge of murder beyond all reasonable doubts.
She held that the convict was guilty of both charges, which she said contravened sections 320, 316(1) and 319(1) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun State, 2006.
Earlier, the prosecuting counsel, Mrs Oluwabumi Akinola, had told the court that Ibrahim committed the offences on April 12, 2014, at Ofada, Owode Egba area of the state.
Akinola said the defendant had secretly followed Yakubu, who had her two-year-old son strapped to her back, as she wanted to defecate.
She stated, “On getting into the bush, she dropped her baby on the ground for her to defecate, when Ibrahim attacked her with a knife and attempted to cut off her neck.
“The complainant, the mother of the two-year-old boy, struggled with Ibrahim and escaped to call for help without carrying her son.
“When Ibrahim realised that he did not succeed in cutting off her head, which he needed for sale, he then cut off the complainant son’s head.”
Akinola told the court that the convict made a confessional statement that his intention was to kill the woman and severe her head.
She said the convict had negotiated with a woman at the Ibode Market in Ibadan, who was ready to pay him N120,000 for a human head.
“Unfortunately for him, when he took the baby’s head to the buyer, she refused to pay the amount as promised. So, he collected the head back and went to bury it,” Akintola stated.
The prosecutor said the police later apprehended Ibrahim, following a report by Yakubu.
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