Court remands man for alleged murder of employer

A Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday ordered  remand of a 43-year-old man, Femi Joseph, who allegedly killed his employer.

The court ordered that the defendant should be kept at a correctional centre in Ado Ekiti pending advice of the state Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The defendant, whose address was not provided, is charged with murder.

The court didn’t take his plea as the Chief Magistrate, Mr Afunso Saka, said he needed the DPP’s advice.

The prosecutor, Insp Oriyomi Akinwale, had told the court that the defendant murdered one Mr Babalola Folarin  sometime in September 2020 in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti.

Akinwale said that the deceased’s wife, who reported the matter, told the police that she got an emergency call on Sept. 9, 2020, informing her of her husband’s death.

The prosecutor quoted the deceased’s wife as saying that, on getting to the alleged crime scene,  she met her husband lying lifeless on a bench, with his neck swollen and blood gushing out from one of his ankles.

According to Akinwale, the woman said that before the fateful day, there was a misunderstanding between the deceased  and the defendant, who was one of his employees.

The prosecutor quoted the woman as saying that the misunderstanding had to do with payment and she promised to make the payment.

Akinwale noted that murder  contravened Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.

The prosecutor urged the court to remand the defendant, pending advice from the DPP.

The case was adjourned until March 8 for mention.