Man In Court For Stabbing 78-Year-Old Father To Death With Broken Bottle
LAGOS JANUARY 8TH (NEWSRANERS)-A hairdresser, Ms Patience Oamen, yesterday told an Ikeja High Court how her 38-year-old brother, Nelson Oamen, allegedly stabbed their 78-year-old father to death with a broken bottle.
Nelson, a carpenter, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), was arraigned on July 10, 2019, on a charge of murder, contrary to Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2011.
Led in evidence by lead state counsel, Mr. M. T. Adewoye, Patience, the seventh of eight children fathered by the deceased, Mr. Sunday Oamen, alleged that Nelson killed their father in their apartment at Abesan Estate in Lagos State.
Giving evidence as the first prosecution witness, Patience said that the defendant, who is the fourth child, had a cordial but sometimes strained relationship with their father because of the deceased’s refusal to give him money.
She said: “He used to ask our father for money, and our father used to give him some of the times; sometimes, our father would not give him; when that happened, he would fight with him and abuse him.
“On the day of the incident, our mother who sells foodstuff, was downstairs with me, our mother cooked a meal for our father and took it upstairs for him to eat.
“Between 12p.m. and 1p.m., while our mother and I were downstairs, I saw my brother hurriedly coming downstairs with his clothes stained with blood. I called his name but he ran away.
“The door to the house was locked and I was wondering how he opened the door. I took the keys, opened the door and saw a pool of blood.”
The witness said that she immediately ran downstairs to call her mother, and both ran upstairs to check on her father and noticed he had been stabbed.
She added: “He had been stabbed all over his stomach and neck with a broken bottle.”
Patience told the court that the case was reported to the police and three days later, Nelson came to the police station to confess that he stabbed their father to death.
The hairdresser also testified that due to Nelson’s conflict with their parents over money, he stole and sold a prepaid meter belonging to the family.
She added that Nelson smoked hemp.
According to Patience, the deceased sponsored Nelson’s only child’s schooling as his spouse fled her matrimonial home due to domestic violence.
While being cross-examined by defence counsel, Mrs E. B. Ogogo, the witness said that though she was not in the apartment when the alleged murder took place, she knew it was her brother who committed the offence because she saw him with bloodstains on his clothes.
Ogogo noted that in Patience’s two statements to the police, she said that she suspected that her brother committed the murder but never said that she saw him fleeing the scene.
“I saw him on that day but I forgot to put it down in my statement. I was not myself that day because of the shock; that is why I did not remember.
“My brother said that our father’s spirit was hunting him; that was why he went to the police station to confess. I was also shocked when I heard that,” Patience said.
Meanwhile, the prosecution said that the defendant was 33 years old when he allegedly committed the murder.
Justice Hakeem Oshodi adjourned the case till April 6 for continuation of trial.
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Posted by News Rangers
on Jan 8 2020. Filed under National.
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