Man To Die For Hacking Neighbour To Death Over Generator Fumes

By Onozure Dania

A Lagos State High Court, sitting at Igbosere, has sentenced a 31-year-old man, Ibrahim Tijani, to death by hanging for hacking his neighbour to death over complaint of fumes from his generating set.

Justice Akintoye sentenced him to death after finding him guilty of murder.

Tijani was first arraigned on January 21, 2016, on a one-count charge of murder preferred against him by Lagos State.

The convict, who resided in an uncompleted building with the deceased, at Okun in Ajah area of Lagos, had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Prosecutor, Adeniji Kazeem(SAN), Attorney General of Lagos State, had told the court that Mr. Tijani, 31, killed Bashorun Okan-lawon, 57, with machete at 2:30a.m. on February 8, 2015.

He said the offence contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. During trial, the deceased’s 16-year-old son, Adeola Okanlawon, had told the court that his father was killed with a machete after complaining of smoke coming from Tijani’s electric power generator.

He added that his late father had called the defendant to complain about the smoke that was coming out of his generator set.

According to Adeola, his father had asked the convict to change the position of the generator set to stop the smoke from entering his room, but he refused to do so, leading to a fight, noting “when the defendant was cutting my father with cutlass, I pleaded with him, but he refused to listen.”