Sunday Clement has been ordered to remain in jail detention by an Ondo State Chief Magistrate Court in Akure following the alleged murder of Taye Alatoye, a farmer.
The state police command’s personnel detained the 24-year-old laborer defendant after the incident, who was then taken to court and charged with one count of murder.
In the state’s Idanre Local Government Area, the defendant was accused of killing the victim as he was making his way to a farm in the Ofosu village.
He reportedly went suddenly backward as Clement and Alatoye were both walking to the farm on that fatal day, pulled out his sharpened cutlass, and hacked the victim in the neck, leaving his head hanging.
According to the prosecutor, Mary Adebayo, the defendant committed the offense on September 4, 2023, at about 2:30 p.m. at Baba Odun Camp, Ofosu in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.
She said the offence committed contravened Sections 316 and 319 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 37 Vol. II Law of Ondo State, 2006.
Adebayo prayed the court to remand the defendant at the correctional centre, Olokuta, Akure, pending the outcome of advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In her ruling, the Chief Magistrate, Folasade Aduroja, granted the prosecutor’s request and ordered the remand of the defendant in prison and also directed that the case file be duplicated and sent to the DPP for advice. She adjourned the case till November 28, 2023.
The defendant who pleaded for forgiveness said he committed the act under the influence of hard drugs.
He said, “We were both going, and we greeted each other on the path. 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.”