Woman Stabs, sets husband ablaze in Delta over Phone Call

A Delta State High Court, sitting in Effurun on Monday
sentenced one Mrs. Mary Attah, to death by hanging
for stabbing her husband, Pastor Darlington Attah, with
a kitchen knife and setting him ablaze.
The prosecution counsel, Patrick Mekako Esq, told the
court that the 28-year-old housewife who was married
to the deceased, with four children, had on or about 6
July, 2012 at Effurun, within the Effurun Judicial
Division, attacked her husband with a kitchen knife and
stabbed him in the neck as a result of an alleged phone
call from the husband’s lover.
The prosecutor said, “The accused was infuriated by
the telephone call at a time they were having a nice
time which prompted her to rush to the kitchen, took a
knife and pepper which she rubbed on her husband’s
face to demobilize him before stabbing him in the neck.
“The convict doused the husband who was already
weak as a result of excessive bleeding with fuel and set
him ablaze.
“He later died at the Warri Central Hospital where he
was rushed to,” the prosecutor said, adding that the
offence is punishable by death under Section 319(1) of
the Criminal Code Law, Cap C21, Volume 1, Laws of
Delta State of Nigeria, 2006.
“The accused is facing a one-count charge bodering on
murder.”
The Chief Judge, Justice E.I. Oritsejafor, held that the
prosecution was able to prove beyond all reasonable
doubt the essential ingredients of the offence of murder
against the accused person.
In his ruling, the judge said, “I must also add that the
evidence before this Court do not and cannot support
the plea of self defence in favour of the accused
person.
“I agree with the learned Assistant Director for the
Prosecution that there is just no possible defence to
avail the accused person when she stabbed her
deceased husband in the neck with a knife and
thereafter doused him with fuel before she struck the
match on him.
“Her intention was to kill the deceased or do him
grievous bodily harm. The law is trite that a man
intends the natural consequences of his act.
“From the evidence before this Court and in particular
the extra-judicial statement of the accused person,
Exhibit A and the evidence of PW1 and PW2 which
corroborate and consistent with the facts contained in
the said extrajudicial statement Exhibit A, I hold that
the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that
the accused person murdered her deceased husband on
or about the 6th day of July, 2012.
“I find the accused person guilty of the murder of
Darlington Attah as charged.
“Accused person is accordingly, hereby convicted of
the offence of murder.
“The sentence of this Court upon you, Mary Attah, is
death by hanging by the neck till you be dead and may
the Lord have mercy on your soul,” the judge ruled.