Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, remanded a 36-year-old woman, identified as Janet Jegede, in correctional facility as a criminal lunatic for stabbing her husband, Kayode, to death.
Rant HQ learnt that Janet was arraigned before Justice Bamidele Omotoso on September 16, 2020, on one count charge bordering on murder.
According to the charge, the defendant on November 17, 2019, at Ado Ekiti, murdered her husband contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.
Narrating the tragic incident, her stepson, Ayomide, in a statement to the police, said his stepmother had called, asking him to come home to take his father to the hospital because she had killed him.
According to him, Janet had always threatened to kill his father over alleged infidelity but he took it as an empty threat.
He said, “When I got home, I met my father in the pool of his blood, gasping. I saw a knife hanging on his chest. I asked her what happened, but her explanation was incoherent.
“When I removed the knife, the bleeding increased. I went outside to call neighbours to help me take him to the hospital. He was rushed to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital where he was confirmed dead on arrival.
“My stepmother once reported my father to me asking me to warn him to stop infidelity. She had threatened to kill him if he refused to stop. I took it as an empty threat until she killed my father”
The prosecutor, Abayomi Olowoyo-Richard, called five witnesses and tendered statements of the defendant, a knife, photographs of the corpse of the deceased, and statements of the witnesses as exhibits.
However, counsel for the defendant, Emmanuel Adedeji, said the defendant was mentally imbalanced at the time of the incident and urged the court to discharge and acquit her on the grounds of insanity.
In his judgment, Justice Omotoso said, “It is settled that where a plea of insanity succeeds, the defendant will be ordered to be confined in a prescribed place to await further order of the appropriate authority.
“I hereby order that the defendant, Janet Jegede, be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic at a correctional services centre, off Afao Road, Ado Ekiti, until the governor’s pleasure be known in line with Section 223 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2011.”
