An Akure Chief Magistrate’s Court has remanded Mima Chinecherem, a 27-year-old labourer, in a detention facility for allegedly killing Felicia Aderibigbe, 80, through rape.
On May 25, Chinecherem made an appearance before the court on a single count of murder.
The accused committed the crime on May 17, 2023 at around 10 p.m. in Ago Erinje through Costian Ore, Ondo State, according to police prosecutor Nelson Akintimehin.
It was said that Chinecherem bound the elderly woman in her cocoa field with a cloth and raped her to death.
The indictment claims that the offence violates Section 319 of the Ondo State Criminal Law from 2006.
The court did not accept the defendant’s plea.
The prosecutor requested that the defendant be held in custody pending the receipt of legal counsel from the Office of the Director of the Public Prosecution.
In his statement, the defendant refuted accusations that he was to blame for her death.
Chinecherem said that when he heard that his family members had begun searching the farm for her, he removed the deceased’s phone and cutlass and brought them to her house to tell them of her death.
Chief Magistrate Musa Al-Yunus remanded the accused at the correctional custody in Ondo for legal advice and adjourned the case till October 2, 2023.
Mrs Aderibigbe was reported missing on May 17, 2023, after she failed to return from her farm
The matter was reported at the Otu police divisional headquarters the following day.
The octogenarian body was later found at the edge of her farm after several days of search by the community.
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