Court Sentenced Ondo Pastor To Death By Hanging For Committing Murder

A High Court in Akure, the Ondo State capital has sentenced a Pentecostal Church pastor, Samson Kolawole to death by hanging for committing murder.

Kolawole was sentenced to death on Friday, after the court found him guilty of killing one Mr Ayo Olaniyi at a farm settlement within the Oke-Igbo axis in Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo Local Government Area of the state. 

The trial judge, Justice Ademola Bola, said the pastor was guilty of the death of Olaniyi after inflicting injury on the deceased’s head with a cutlass at Gberinlegi village in 2016.

According to Justice Bola, the injury sustained during the encounter was said to have led to the death of Olaniyi at the hospital.

The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice who was represented by two government’s lawyers, Mr Olusegun Akeredolu and Mrs Omotola Ologun, told the court that the pastor inflicted a deep cut on the head of the deceased when he went to hunt for frogs with three of his friends at a fish pond.

They argued that the offence was contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Laws of Ondo State (2006).

The accused had pleaded not guilty of the offence but, delivering his judgement, Justice Bola ruled that all evidence before the court during the trial in the last four years showed that Kolawole was guilty of killing Olaniyi and deserve to die by hanging.