An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, on Thursday sentenced a 25 years old herdsman, Mohamodu Haruna, to death by hanging for killing a fellow herder, one Mohamadu Usman.

The Judge, Justice Adekunle Adeleye, in his verdict found the defendant (now condemned person) guilty of the murder charge that he stood trial for.

Justice Adeleye said, “There are no surrounding circumstances that destroy the cogency of the circumstantial evidence led against the accused.

“He is caught in the web of the last seen theory. In the result, I find the defendant guilty as charged. He is sentenced to death by hanging,” the court said.

During the trial, the prosecutor, Shirley Atanel, had said, “The offence was committed on or about the 12th day of February, 2018 at Odo Uro, Iyin Ekiti, in the Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government area of Ekiti State, when he murdered one Mohamadu Usman contrary to section 516 of the Criminal code law CAP C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.”

To prove his case, the prosecutor had called four witnesses including the Investigating Police Officer while exhibits tendered included the confessional statements of the defendant, photographs of the deceased butchered neck and a blood stained machete.

An eye witness, who testified before the court during the trial had said in his testimony that he saw two herdsmen with their cows while he was on his motorcycle.

The witness said he later discovered that “one of them was returning a blood stained machete into its sheath and the other one lay face down in the pool of his own blood with machete cut in his neck”.

Lawyer to the defendant, Yinka Opaleke, did not call any witness in the course of the trial.