Two years after killing his undergraduate girlfriend, a man, Chukwudi Onweniwe, was sentenced to death by hanging yesterday by an Akure High Court. Onweniwe strangled to death in Owo, Ondo State, his girlfriend, Nifemi Adeyeye, an HND student of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic.
The convict was accused of endangering life, abduction, rape and murder on a four-count charge. The convict kidnapped Nifemi and took her to a farm near Alayere, Ogbese, raped her and then snuffed her the life by shocking her to death and strangulating her.
Nifemi’s mother, who testified before the court, said her daughter had told her she was going to visit her friend on the day she went missing.
She said that she did not know the convict though he was said to be her daughter’s boyfriend.
Two motorcyclists who saw the duo together on that fateful day also testified in the case and one of them told the court that he carried them to a spot in town.
The judge said the convict had confessed to the officers of the squad according to the testimony of one Ayoola Famoriyo and had taken his team to the spot where he hid the corpse of the deceased.
The witness said Onweniwe had pointed to the spot where he kept Nifemi’s body and it was taken to the mortuary while the stone found near her head with which he had bashed in her skull was taken to the police station as an exhibit.
When the defence opened its case, the father of the convict, Nwosu Onweniwe, had told the court that the deceased was his son’s girlfriend who had been very helpful to him.
He said the deceased used to go with him to the farm and often washed his clothes.
