A 20-year-old man, Agugu Adau, has been sentenced to death by hanging by a High Court sitting in Jos, for killing his mother.
Justice Nafisa Musa handed the sentence after he found the defendant guilty.
“Based on the evidence before this court, the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that you, Adau, mercilessly took the life of your own mother. The judgment of this court upon you is that you will be hanged by the neck until you die, may God have mercy on your soul,” Musa declared.
The convict committed the crime on December 30, 2016, when he killed his mother for refusing to give him an “invisibility” charm he claimed was his inheritance from his late herbalist father.
Agugu committed the crime at his Kisaghyip village farm in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau. Agugu, after killing his mother, removed the sum of N20,000 from her blood-soaked clothes and used it to buy a mobile phone, a shirt and a pair of slippers.
Agugu said he killed the woman because she refused to give him a charm that was his inheritance from his father.
“When I was 14 years old, my late father, who was a native doctor, showed me a charm that enabled him to disappear and reappear at will. He promised to hand over the charm to me when I turn 18. On his dying bed four years ago, he gave my mother the charm and asked her to give me when I turn 18. But I am now 18 and she has refused to give it to me.
“On this fateful day at the farm, I asked her about it, but she threatened to throw the charm into the river if I disturbed her too much.
Her response infuriated me and I suddenly felt that she was of no value to me as a mother. I immediately slaughtered her with the knife I was using to harvest potatoes. After slaughtering her, I dumped her body in the bush,” he said.
