A 36-year-old woman, Janet Jegede, who is standing trial at an Ekiti state High court for allegedly stabbing her husband, Kayode Jegede, to death has asked the court to discharge and acquit her on grounds of insanity.
Jegede was arraigned before Justice Bamidele Omotoso on September 16, 2020, on one count bordering on murder. According to the charge sheet, Janet had on the defendant “on November 17, 2019, at Ado Ekiti, did murder one Kayode Jegede (her husband) contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.”
In his statement to the police, her stepson, Ayomide, said Janet had sometime back threatened to kill his father over his incessant acts of infidelity. He said on the day of the incident, he received a call from his stepmother asking him to come home to take his father to the hospital because she had killed him.
“When I got home, I met my father in the pool of his blood, gasping. I saw a knife hanging on his chest. I asked her what happened, but her explanation was incoherent. When I removed the knife, the bleeding increased. I went outside to call neighbours to help me take him to the hospital. He was rushed to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital where he was confirmed dead on arrival. My stepmother once reported my father to me asking me to warn him to stop infidelity. She had threatened to kill him if he refused to stop. I took it as an empty threat until she killed my father”he said
During the trial, five witnesses were presented by the prosecutor, Abayomi Olowoyo-Richard. Also tendered before the court are statements of the defendant, a knife, photographs of the corpse of the deceased, and statements of the witnesses as exhibits.
Janet’s lawyer, Emmanuel Adedeji, told the court that she was mentally imbalanced at the time of the incident and asked the court to discharge and acquit her on the grounds of insanity.
Ruling on Adedeji’s application, the presiding judge, Justice Omotoso said
“It is settled that where a plea of insanity succeeds, the defendant will be ordered to be confined in a prescribed place to await further order of the appropriate authority. I hereby order that the defendant, Janet Jegede, be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic at a correctional services centre, off Afao Road, Ado Ekiti, until the governor’s pleasure be known in line with Section 223 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2011.”