Headline

Man To Die By Hanging For Killing 8-month-old Pregnant Wife In Ondo

Published

1 year ago

February 24, 2023

Editor

An Akure High Court, sitting in Ondo state, has sentenced a 34-year-old man, Oluwaseun Olabode, to death by hanging, for allegedly killing his eight-month-old, pregnant wife, Adaeze 0labode, three years ago.

The trial judge, Justice A. Adebusoye, in his verdict after three years of trial, said that the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Adebusoye, declared Olabode Oluwaseun guilty as charged and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The prosecutors led by H.M Falowo Esq, a Chief Legal Officer, said that the accused person on April 3, 2020. at about 7 : 00 pm in Oke-Ogba Estate, Akure did beat Adaeze Olabode, his wife with a blunt object on the right side of her abdomen while she was heavily pregnant, which subsequently led to her death.

Falowo said that the case of murder was reported on May 5, 2020, through a petition written to the Commissioner of Police, Ondo State Command, by one Dr Henry Orumen esq on behalf of the family of the deceased, Mrs Blessing Adaeze Olabode, against Olabode Oluwaseun.

A police witness, Insp. Adaran Adebayo, of the State CID, Akure, had testified that a case of murder was reported through a written petition to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Ondo State Command by the parents of the victim.

Adebayo, said that he led the team that investigated the case and that the statement of the complainants and their witnesses were freely recorded while the defendant was invited and his statement was obtained after administering cautionary words.

According to him, investigations revealed that the deceased and the defendant got married in 2014, and were pregnant with their second child, which was found dead in her womb a few days before her demise.

Adebayo further testified that prior to her death, “they had a quarrel concerning the manner in which the defendant spent some money within the period before the deceased was rushed to the hospital.”

Police prosecutor added that “the autopsy report conducted on the corpse of the deceased showed that irregular bruises and abrasions found on the right side of the lower part of the deceased abdomen caused a trauma which was so intense to have ruptured her uterus.”

He told the court that ” the complications led to the death of Adaeze Blessing.

However, the convict, denied that he fought with his wife, but the deceased family insisted in their petition and testimonies before the court that she suffered assault from her husband several times which eventually led to her death.

While testifying, the father of the deceased, nee Anya, said that his deceased daughter suffered violent maltreatment from her husband and the mother-in-law, Stella Olabode.

Anya, noted that “at a point in their marriage, the deceased attempted suicide and left a suicide note but l waded into the matter and brokered peace between the couple.

“After my daughter’s death on April 14, 2020, her corpse was abandoned at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Owo, until the intervention of my immediate younger brother,” he stated.

Also, the deceased, mother, Blessing, told the court that her daughter’s husband, her late daughter’s husband, informed her via a phone call that her daughter was sick while the phone was placed in the deceased’s ear but she could not hear her.

Blessing said that the defendant told her that he was rushing the deceased to the hospital.

She narrated that the next morning she met her daughter at Mother and Child Hospital while a caesarian operation had been performed on her.

Blessing told the court that she did not see the corpse of the baby that died in her womb, which necessitated the operation.

She testified further that she thereafter visited her in the ward and discovered that blood was gushing out from the right side of her abdomen and a pipe was attached to the place blood was gushing out which was different from the place where the operation was conducted.

“My daughter informed me that it was her husband who hit her on that particular spot, which led to the bleeding and eventual loss of the baby,” she concluded.

Another witness, a consultant pathologist, O.E Pelemo, said that he performed an autopsy on the corpse of Adaeze Blessing Olabode.

Pelemo informed the court that he noticed irregular bruises and abrasions on the right side of the lower part of the deceased’s abdomen, and found the cause of death to be a wound caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen which resulted in an internal wound and bleeding.

The pathologist confirmed that he prepared the autopsy report and signed it.
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Headline

List Of Persons On Board Iranian President’s Missing Helicopter

Published

3 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was involved in a hard landing while visiting a northern region and his condition is currently unknown.

There were three helicopters in this convoy, two of which were carrying ministers and officials, and they arrived at their destination safely.

According to reports, different rescue groups are moving towards the area to locate the missing helicopter.

DAILY POST reported that it was unclear if Raisi and others on board with him survived the crash.

However, given the unsuitable weather conditions, it may take some time for the rescue team to find the helicopter.

According to World of Statistics, those onboard the helicopter when the incident occurred include Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, representative of Iranian Supreme Leader to East Azerbaijan.

Headline

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Azerbaijan Offer Help To Search President Raisi’s Helicopter

Published

3 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

Iranian search and rescue teams were scouring a fog-shrouded mountainside after a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi went missing in an “accident” on Sunday, state media said.

Fears grew for the 63-year-old ultraconservative after contact was lost with the helicopter carrying him as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in East Azerbaijan province, reports said.

“An accident happened to the helicopter carrying the president” in the Jolfa region of the western province, state television said, while some officials described the incident as a “hard landing”.

“The harsh weather conditions and heavy fog have made it difficult for the rescue teams to reach the accident site,” said one state broadcaster.

More than 40 rescue teams using search dogs and drones were sent to the site, reported the IRNA news agency.

Raisi was visiting the province where he inaugurated a dam project together with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, on the border between the two countries.

Raisi’s convoy included three helicopters, and the other two had “reached their destination safely,” according to Tasnim news agency.

Foreign countries were closely following the search effort at a time of high regional tensions over the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas since October 7 that has drawn in other armed groups in the Middle East.

A US State Department spokesman said: “We are closely following reports of a possible hard landing of a helicopter in Iran carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister.

“We have no further comment at this time.”

An Iranian Red Crescent team was seen walking up a slope in thick fog and drizzling rain, while other live footage showed worshippers reciting prayers in the holy city of Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown.

In neighbouring Iraq, Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani “instructed the interior ministry and the Iraqi Red Crescent and other relevant authorities to offer available resources… to aid in the search”.

Azeri President Aliyev said in a post on X that “we were profoundly troubled by the news of a helicopter carrying the top delegation crash-landing in Iran”.

“Our prayers to Allah Almighty are with President Ebrahim Raisi and the accompanying delegation,” he said, noting that his country “stands ready to offer any assistance needed”.

The accident happened in the mountainous protected forest area of Dizmar near the town of Varzaghan, said the official IRNA news agency.

Military personnel along with the Revolutionary Guards and police had also deployed teams to the area, said army chief-of-staff Mohammad Bagheri.

Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi said medical resources had been dispatched.

The reformist Shargh daily also reported that “the helicopter carrying the president crashed” while two other helicopters had landed safely.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said one of the helicopters “made a hard landing due to bad weather conditions” and that it was “difficult to establish communication” with the aircraft.

Raisi has been president of the Islamic Republic since 2021 when he succeeded the moderate Hassan Rouhani, for a term during which Iran has faced crisis and conflict.

He took the reins of a country in the grip of a deep social crisis and an economy strained by US sanctions against Tehran over its contested nuclear programme.

Iran saw a wave of mass protests triggered by the death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022 after her arrest for allegedly flouting dress rules for women.

In March 2023, regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a surprise deal that restored diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday voiced “great concern” after Sunday incident, offering to help with the response.

“We affirm that the Kingdom stands by the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran in these difficult circumstances and its readiness to provide any assistance that the Iranian agencies need,” the foreign ministry of the Gulf kingdom, a longtime rival of Iran, said in a statement.

The war in Gaza that broke out on October 7 sent regional tensions soaring again and a series of tit-for-tat escalations led to Tehran launching hundreds of missiles and rockets directly at Israel in April 2024.

In a speech following Sunday’s dam inauguration, Raisi emphasised Iran’s support for Palestinians, a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“We believe that Palestine is the first issue of the Muslim world, and we are convinced that the people of Iran and Azerbaijan always support the people of Palestine and Gaza and hate the Zionist regime,” said Raisi.

Raisi, born in 1960 in northeast Iran’s holy city of Mashhad, served as Tehran’s prosecutor-general from 1989 to 1994, deputy chief of the Judicial Authority for a decade from 2004, and then national prosecutor-general in 2014.

His black turban signifies direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed, and state media has referred to him by the senior title of ayatollah in the Shiite clerical hierarchy.

Headline

Iranian President: Hamas Raises ‘Great Concern’ Over Helicopter Crash

Published

3 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

Hamas has issued a statement voicing “great concern” after a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other Iranian officials crashed on Sunday, CNN reports.

Recall that a helicopter carrying Raisi was involved in a hard landing while visiting a northern region and his condition is currently unknown.

Details about the crash are still unclear, as rescue groups are moving towards the area to locate the missing helicopter.

However, Hamas has expressed “solidarity” towards the president and the “brotherly Iranian people.”

The Hamas statement reads partly: “In this painful incident, we express our full solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, its leadership, government, and people, and we ask Allah Almighty to protect and ensure the safety of the Iranian President and his accompanying delegation, and to keep all harm away from the brotherly Iranian people.”