An Ikeja High Court in Lagos has fixed December 23 for the re-adoption of final written addresses in the trial of Akolade Arowolo, accused of killing his wife, Titilayo.
The trial judge, Justice Lateefat Okunnu, fixed the date on Thursday due to Arowolo’s absence in court when the prosecution and the defence earlier adopted the addresses.
Arowolo, 31, was charged to court for allegedly stabbing his wife, a banker, to death.
He was arraigned on December 21, 2011 on a one-count charge of murder and had pleaded not guilty.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Olabisi Ogungbesan, alleged that the accused murdered Titilayo on June 24, 2011 at their residence at 8, Akindeinde Street, Isolo, Lagos.
Ogungbesan, while adopting the prosecution’s written address on December 4, had asked the court to convict Arowolo for the offence.
The DPP had argued that the prosecution had proven its case against the accused, beyond reasonable doubt.
She said: “The evidence we have led as to the fact that the deceased is dead, is not in doubt.
“The only person that was with the deceased before her death, at the material time, was the accused.”
According to her, Arowolo admitted that he struggled with the deceased with a knife, which led to her death and thereafter escaped from the crime scene.
Ogungbesan said that the pathologist, Prof. John Obafunwa, had testified that the deceased was stabbed 76 times.
However, Arowolo’s counsel, Olarenwaju Ajanaku, had urged the court to dismiss the charge and acquit him.
Ajanaku argued that the prosecution failed woefully to prove its case against the accused, beyond reasonable doubt, as required by the law.
He claimed that the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses were full of contradictions.
He said: “It is only being suspected that the accused was responsible for the death of the deceased.
“No sufficient facts have been led to prove this suspicion.”
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