School shut, Ekiti judiciary to decide fate of student in juju murder

The Ekiti State police command yesterday said the fate of the student of Ado Grammar School, Ekiti, Kehinde Timilehin, who stabbed his colleague, Favour Matthew, to death on Thursday would be determined by the Director of Public Prosecutor (DPP).

Timilehin, a Senior Secondary School (SSS 3) student on Thursday stabbed the victim to death during a juju contest. Favour died at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital after receiving machete cuts from the suspect.The suspect had since been detained at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti, the capital city.

Speaking with journalists on Sunday, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, said the status of the suspect, who was 16 years old when he allegedly committed the crime remained an issue that would be determined by Ekiti judiciary.He said the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the state Ministry of Justice would determine whether the suspect will face prosecution or be taken to the Juvenile Correction Centre for detention.

“I want to say that the suspect’s fate will be determined by DPP, because being a minor, a lot of things would have to be taken into consideration. But as for us, we are investigating the matter to be able to establish whether it was a case of murder or manslaughter.

“We are investigating the elements of the case, because by law, if you less than 18 years, there must be special consideration for any offence committed. But we also have juvenile correction centre, so the DPP will study the outcome of our investigation and come up with the best alternative that would be in line with the law,” Ikechukwu stated.

However, a source in the school said adequate security measures have been put in place to prevent reprisal attack as the school management in collaboration with the state government had agreed to shut down the school.

“First term is to terminate on December 17 and the students had already wrapped up their first term examinations before the killing. The state government is not going to punish any teacher over the killing since it happened after the school had closed.

“The school is to be shut but the teachers will be working, because the victim’s family threatened that 30 students will be killed in a reprisal attack. It is not in any way safe for us to ask students to return to school now. They had finished their examinations before the incident happened. Even if they resume on Monday (today), we shall ask them to return home in the interest of security.”