Yewande Oyediran, a former staff of the Department of Public Prosecution in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice, who was convicted of manslaughter for killing her husband Lowo, was on Monday handed a seven years jail term by Justice Muntar Abimbola of the Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan.
Yewande, a lawyer, was accused of killing her husband with a knife after a disagreement on February 2, 2016, at their residence in Akobo area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
She was arrested and arraigned in court, but she pleaded not guilty to the murder charge preferred against her.
The court said the convict was charged with a murder count and evidence pointed to Yewande as the killer of her husband, but witnesses presented by the defence counsel failed to establish the intent behind the killing.
The court held that going by the relationship between Yewande and her husband as husband and wife (at the time of the husband’s death), the killing was done without intent.
The couple had no child together.
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.
“Having seen the defendant holding a knife and the defendant had earlier confirmed that she had earlier stabbed her husband with a pair of scissors a day before, I hold that it was the defendant that stabbed the deceased,’’ said the judge.
Abimbola also said that he took into consideration the autopsy report of Prof. Abideen Oluwashola, a consultant from the University College Hospital, Ibadan.
“According to the autopsy report, the deceased died as a result of shock from a deep wound caused by a sharp object,’’ Abimbola said.
The court said the evidence of the convict could not be relied upon because her statement with the Police was different from her statement before the court.
Earlier, the defence counsel, Mr. Leye Adepoju, had, on the basis that his client was a first time offender, prayed the court to be lenient with the term of the sentence.
He added 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.
In his judgment, Justice Abimbola convicted Yewande of manslaughter. Her sentence was to start running since the day of her arrest, the judge said.
The day of judgment was initially slated for November 24, 2017, but the judge moved the day to November 27, 2017, because of other engagements at the Nigerian Judicial Commission.
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