An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure has sentenced a man, Chukwudi Onweniwe, to death by hanging for killing his undergraduate girlfriend two years ago.

Onweniwe, had strangulated his girlfriend, Nifemi Adeyeoye, an HND student of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic to death in Owo, Ondo State.

After reviewing the case, the presiding judge, Justice Ademola Bola, found Onweniwe guilty of murder and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The convict was charged on four-count charge bordering on endangering life, abduction, rape and murder.

The prosecutor, Jumoke Ogunjebi, who filed the charge on February 20, 2017, called five witnesses, including the mother of the deceased, to testify against the convict.

The convict abducted Nifemi and took her to a farm near Alayere, Ogbese, raped her and then snuffed life out of her by strangulating her to death.

Nifemi’s mother, who testified before the court, said her daughter had told her she was going to visit her friend on the fateful day.

According to her, she did not know the convict though he was said to be her daughter’s boyfriend. Besides, the bereaved mother said she did not see her daughter again until policemen invited her to come to the mortuary to identify a corpse whether it was her daughter.

Two motorcyclists who saw the duo together on that day also testified in the case and one of them told the court that he carried them to a spot in town.

Delivering his judgement, Bola said Onweniwe was arraigned before the court on May 22, 2017 and he had entered a “not guilty” plea when the four-count charge preferred against him was read to him.

The judge said that an autopsy was carried out by Dr. Pelemo of Ondo State Specialist Hospital, Akure.

Pelemo reported that the autopsy, revealed abnormal state of the deceased’s neck and fracture of the skull. He explained that it suggested that the deceased had been attacked by an object with a blunt edge which led to her death.

The police witness, Inspector John Aderibigbe, said one of the motorcyclists who testified in the case had come to report the suspicious movement of the convict and the deceased at the police station.

He explained that the case was later transferred to the Special Anti-Cultism Squad in Akure.

The judge said the convict had confessed to the officers of the squad according to the testimony of one Ayoola Famoriyo and had taken his team to the spot where he hid the corpse of the deceased.

NAN