Man bags 13-year jail term for killing over girlfriend

A Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Thursday sentenced Samuel Fidelis to 13 years imprisonment for stabbing a friend to death during a fight over a girl.Justice A.O. Kayode-Ogunmekan said in her judgment that the sentence would commence from November 17, 2003, the day of the incident and the day Samuel was remanded in custody.The judge said the convict, who was charged with manslaughter, unintentionally stabbed the deceased while trying to gain the possession and control of the knife during the fight.She said the prosecution, the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution led by Mrs. E.I Alakija, proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.Kayode-Ogunmekan said, I make bold to say that Exhibit A (Fidelis statement to the police) is an authentic evidence as the proof of the charge of manslaughter against the accused person.I believe that the prosecution has proved to the satisfaction of this court that the accused person did unintentionally cause the death of the deceased.Thirty-two-year-old Samuel was said to have stabbed Nnamdi Ugboma in the chest on November 17, 2003 at his residence in Dolphin, Ikoyi, Lagos.The convict stated during trial that Ugboma was his best friend and that they were living in the same compound as well as working in the same place.According to the statement he made to the police after his arrest on the day of the incident, Fidelis claimed that on the fateful day, he returned from market where he had gone to buy food to meet her girlfriend, Esther, locked up with the deceased in his (Fidelis) room.Fidelis stated that when the door was opened, he met both Esther and the deceased naked. He claimed Esther was crying and later informed him that the deceased had raped her.Fidelis claimed that the deceased ran into the kitchen, came back with a knife and stabbed him (Fidelis) with the knife in the head.He said he was provoked by the action, and that he threw the deeaseds trousers at him (the deceased).He stated that the knife fell and that Ugboma rushed back to him with the knife the second time trying to stab him (Fidelis) again.In his account, Fidelis added that it was in the course of trying to stop the deceased from stabbing him again that he (Ugboma) was stabbed in the chest.He said Ugboma was his best friend and that there was no way he (Fidelis) could have intentionally killed him. Fidelis added that the food he went to the market to buy was meant for both of them.He told the court that he had not seen Esther after the incident.In pleading for mercy before the sentencing, counsel for Fidelis, Mr. A.I Ube, said the convict was the breadwinner and the only male child in his family.Fidelis had on his arraignment on June 5, 2006, pleaded not guilty to one count of manslaughter.
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