A Chief Magistrate Court, sitting in Akure, Ondo Sate, has remanded a labourer, Sunday Clement to a correctional centre for beheading a farmer, Taye Alatoye at Baba Odun Camp, Ofosu in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.
Sunday, 24, killed his 30-year-old victim while they were going to the farm.
He was immediately arrested and handed over to the police.
Sunday reportedly used his cutlass to severe Alatoye’s head from his body without any provocation.
Police Prosecutor, Mary Adebayo, said the defendant committed the offence on September 4, 2023, at about 2:30 pm at Baba Odun Camp, Ofosu in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.
The offence, Adebayo said, contravened Sections 316 and 319 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 37 Vol. II Law of Ondo State, 2006.
But the defendant, who pleaded for forgiveness, said he had taken a mixture of Crystal methamphetamine also known as ‘ice’ and marijuana.
“We were both going, and we greeted each other on the road part.”
“The spirit just came over me to cut off Taye’s head. I can’t actually say what led to it. I think it was the ‘Ice’ I took in the hot sun,” he explained.
“The spirit just told me to go backward and I did. All my eyes were blocked and I heard another voice that instructed me to cut the man with the cutlass in my hand, which I did.
“Immediately I did it, I came back to my senses and started crying before I was eventually apprehended by the police, “ the defendant explained.
Presiding Magistrate, Folasade Aduroja, did not take Sunday’s plea for want of jurisdiction.
Aduroja ordered the remand of the defendant to the Olokuta Correctional Centre and directed the case file be duplicated and sent to the DPP for advice.
The case was adjourned to November 28, 2023.
