An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Thursday, ordered that a 36-year-old woman, Janet Jegede, be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic for stabbing her husband, Kayode, to death.
Jegede was arraigned before Justice Bamidele Omotoso on September 16, 2020, on one count bordering on murder.
According to the charge, the defendant “on November 17, 2019, at Ado Ekiti, did murder one Kayode Jegede (her husband) contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.”
Her stepson, Ayomide, in his statement to the police, had said he received a call from his stepmother asking him to come home to take his father to the hospital because she had killed him.
“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,” Ayomide had said.
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.
But counsel for the defendant, Emmanuel Adedeji, who said the defendant was mentally imbalanced at the time of the incident, 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.”
