25- YEAR- OLD UNEMPLOYED CHOPPED OFF DRIVER’S HAND WITH CUTLASS

A 25-year-old unemployed, Yekini Balogun, was on Thursday docked at an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos for allegedly cutting a part of a truck driver’s hand with a cutlass. Balogun, a resident of Ikeja area of Lagos State, is being tried for a breach of the peace and inflicting wound on another person. 

The prosecutor, Insp. Ezekiel Ayorinde, said that the accused committed the offences on March 28 at Afariogun Street in Isolo, Lagos State. He said that the accused and others still at large conspired to cause harm to Mr Ibrahim Adebayo, a tipper driver. 

“The accused caused grievous harm to the complainant by cutting a part of his left hand with a cutlass,” he said. Ayorinde said that the accused and his accomplices stormed the site where the complainant had gone to offload sand and demanded money from him. “The complainant told them that he did not have money; this led the accused to machete him with a cutlass.

“The complainant was rushed to an undisclosed hospital by some good Samaritans when he was bleeding heavily from the machete. “During the attack on him, the accused stole the complainant’s phone valued at N28,000. 

“The accused was arrested while others took to their heels,’’ he said. The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 169, 246 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised). 

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 246 prescribes three years’ jail term for inflicting wound. The accused pleaded innocence of the offences and was granted bail in the sum of N50,000 with one surety in like sum. The magistrate, Mrs O.J. Awope, adjourned the case until June 30 for mention.