A High Court in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has delivered a death sentence by hanging to gospel singer Oluwatimileyin Ajayi after finding him guilty of murdering his girlfriend, Salome Adaidu.
Presiding judge, Justice Simon Aboki, handed down the judgment on Today, convicting Ajayi for culpable homicide following an extensive trial. The court ruled under Section 221 of the Penal Code applicable in Northern Nigeria, which stipulates the death penalty for such an offence.
“The evidence before the court clearly shows that the accused intentionally caused the death of the deceased. The law is clear on this, and the punishment is death. Therefore, the accused is hereby sentenced to death by hanging,” Justice Aboki declared.
The deceased, 24-year-old Adaidu, was a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), serving at Nicon Insurance in Abuja at the time of her death.
Ajayi was apprehended in January in possession of Adaidu’s decapitated head.
In an interview , he expressed no remorse. “I killed her because we don’t have each other all the time. It’s not something I planned. It happened on that day and it happened. Not that I have the plan in mind,” Ajayi stated.
“She was cheating. She hides most of the things from me most times. I got to know from her phone. I saw her chats with other guys on the phone, that was why I decided.
“I don’t have any regrets because life is reciprocal, that is what I thought. If you must do something to someone, you have to be reciprocal with that person.
“You have to understand what that person is going through so that you can actually put yourself in the position that the person is going through. That is why I don’t have any regrets because we were actually compatible.”
However, contrary to Ajayi’s claims, the victim’s elder sister, Esther Adaidu, refuted the existence of any romantic relationship between her late sister and the convict.
