Winma Chinecherem, a 27-year-old palm wine tapper, has been ordered to remain in custody after an Akure Chief Magistrates’ Court found her guilty of killing Felicia Aderibigbe, 80, by rape.
The police filed a murder accusation against Chinecherem, charging him with one count of murder.
The accused committed the crime on May 17, 2023 at around 10 p.m. in Ago Erinje through Costian Ore, Ondo State, according to the Police Prosecutor, who told the court of this.
The indictment claims that the offense violates Section 319 of the Ondo State Criminal Law from 2006.
The defendant’s plea was not accepted by the court.
The Police Prosecutor requested that the suspect be held in custody until the Office of the Director of the Public Prosecution can provide legal counsel.
He said that he only picked the deceased’s phone and cutlass in the farm and took them to her house when he heard that his family members have started combing the forest for her, in order to inform them of her death.
The trial Chief Magistrate, Musa Al-Yunus, remanded the accused at the correctional custody in Ondo for legal advice.
Yunus thereafter adjourned the case till October 2, this year.
Recall that the deceased was declared missing after she failed to return from her farm on May 17. Her corpse was later found in the farm after many days.
The state police commissioner, Taiwo Jesubiyi, while parading the suspect said that the “Late Mrs Aderibigbe Felicia aged 80years left for farm on the 17th of May and did not return, all efforts to find her in the farm proved abortive until one Mima Chinecherem aged 27years who specializes in Banga cutting at night pegged a palm frond in front of deceased house.
“This arose the suspicion of the deceased children who apprehended the suspect and was immediately searched, the mobile phone of the old woman was recovered from him. “He was handed over to the police and during interrogation, he claimed he saw the cutlass, bucket and mask at the boundary of the deceased farm.
“When asked the reason for the palm frond, he said it was the deceased children who cut and dropped it on their mother’s farmland, so he decided to take it to their house around 10pm and told them they would understand the meaning the next day.
