Husband sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for killing wife in Abuja

The Apo Division of the Federal High court on Wednesday, sentenced Ayedun Makanjuola to four years’ imprisonment for running over and killing his wife, Adenike.

The FCT police commissioner charged Mr Makanjuola with culpable homicide.

Justice Angela Otaluka held that the deceased’s act was provocative when she threw her husband’s food and when she threw a stone at the rear windscreen of his car while he tried to drive out.

The judge said she did not consider Mr Makanjuola reversing his car as retaliation but as a loss of control of his feelings.

“It was not a deliberate action but sudden. The prosecution has failed to prove the intent of the defendant but has proven the offence of culpable homicide.

“I find the defendant guilty of culpable homicide not punishable with death and convict him,” the judge said.

The defence counsel, Kolade Adeboyega, told the court that the defendant was a responsible man and was planning a trip to bring their two children home with the deceased before the incident.

Mr Adeboyega urged the court to consider the children who are living with their maternal grandmother.

Ms Otaluka, however, sentenced the defendant to four years’ imprisonment, including the two years and 10 months he had already spent in jail, citing sections 222 and 224 of the Penal Code.

Section 222 states that culpable homicide is not punishable with death if the offender, while deprived of the power of self-control by grave and sudden provocation, causes the death of the person who gave the provocation or causes the death of any other person by mistake oraccident.

Section 224 states that whoever commits culpable homicide, not punishable by death, will be punished with imprisonment for life or any lesser term or with a fine or with both.

The prosecution counsel, Adama Musa, told the court that Mr Makanjuola reversed his vehicle and ran over his wife, which led to her death on May 7, 2021, after a misunderstanding.

The prosecution counsel said Mr Makanjuola reversed his car and crashed the deceased into a concrete fence, which caused her serious injuries, and rushed his wife to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Mr Makanjuola, in his defence, said he put the car in reverse mode in anger and mistakenly crushed his wife.

(NAN)