An Ekiti State High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti has sentenced 42-yr-old Stephen Omoniyi to death by hanging for killing a monarch.
Omoniyi was charged with killing Oba Gbadebo Ibitoye Olowoselu ll, the Onise of Odo-Oro Ekiti, in August 2018 at Odo-Oro Ekiti in Ikole Ekiti.
One of the chiefs who testified before the court said, “We were at the palace on that day for Onise in Council meeting. Around 7am, before the commencement of the meeting, Omoniyi Ademola Stephen entered the palace and sat on Kabiyesi’s seat but the chiefs frowned at his action and drove him away.
“After the meeting, the late Onise in the company of his male clerk, was trekking back to the main palace when Ademola came out of hiding and attacked Kabiyesi with a knife, stabbing him to death. Before that day, he had been parading himself as the king of the town,” the chief said.
The state counsel, Adegboyega Morakinyo, called five witnesses and tendered a medical report, statements of the convict, a knife and rope, among others, as exhibits.
Omoniyi called no witness and spoke in his own defence through his counsel Tope Amr Salami.
Dispelling the notion that the defendant is insane, Justice Olukayode Ogundana sentenced him to death by hanging.