An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan on Monday sentenced lawyer, Yewande Oyediran, to seven years imprisonment for stabbing her husband, Lowo, to
An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan on Monday sentenced lawyer, Yewande Oyediran, to seven years imprisonment for stabbing her husband, Lowo, to death. The trial judge, Munta Abimbola, said Yewande was convicted of manslaughter and not murder as charged. Abimbola said that while the prosecution proved that the defendant caused the death of the deceased, it failed to proof that it was done intentionally.
He ordered that the seven year imprisonment should commence from Feb.2, 2016 when she was arrested. The judge said that with the evidence before the court, the convict and her late husband had frequently engaged in domestic violence. He also adjudged the evidence of the couple’s landlord and wife, Mr and Mrs Akinpelu, as credible. The landlord and his wife had told the court that they saw the convict holding a knife, while the deceased was in a pool of blood.
Abimbola also said that he took into consideration the autopsy report of Prof. Abideen Oluwashola, a consultant from the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan which states: Oyelowo Oyediran Ajanaku: Died from the wounds inflicted by his wife . The court said that the evidence of the convict could not be relied upon, because her statement with the police was different from her statement before the court.
Mr Leye Adepoju, the defence counsel, pleaded for leniency for his client, as she was a first time offender. He argued that imprisonment was not to ruin, but to reform.
“If it is too long, it would ruin the life and as well jeopardise the job of the defendant, being a legal practitioner,” he said.
The prosecution counsel, Mr Sanya Akinyele, however, said he was leaving the issue of the sentencing to the discretion of the court. Yewande Oyediran, a staff of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice, stabbed her husband to death on 2 Feb. 2016, at Akobo area of Ibadan. The convict stood trial on a lone count of murder. She pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Nan
