Siblings Sentence To Fifteen Months Imprisonment For Assaulting Brothers Widows on an Allegation of Witchcraft

An Ekiti State Chief Magistrate Court, in Ado Ekiti District, has sentenced two siblings, Sunday Arowosoki, and Gbolaga Arowosoki, to fifteen months imprisonment for assaulting a suspected witch and maliciously damaging her properties.

They were found guilty of mobilizing some family members to attack their brother’s widow with dangerous weapons and vandalizing her shop following their witchcraft allegation against the woman.

According to the prosecutor, the convict conspired on April 17, 2022, at Ayegunle Ekiti in Ijero Local Government Area of Ekiti State to “commit felony, assault and malicious damage, unlawfully on the widow of their late brother, Mrs. Rachael Arowosoki.

The victim, in her statement to the police, said that she is a trader, I got married to the late Jimoh Arowosoki over 45 years ago. We have six children. After the death of my husband, his siblings accused me of witchcraft and responsibility for his death. The case was reported to the monarch, who dismissed the allegation as frivolous and unsubstantiated.

“Thereafter, the siblings mobilized other members of the family, they were armed with cutlasses, sticks, and other dangerous weapons to kill me, but I escaped and ran to the palace. When their mission could not be accomplished, they went to my shop erected in front of my house and destroyed it,” she stated.

The Police Prosecutor, Inspector Elijah Adejare, called three witnesses and tendered the victim’s statement, the defendant’s statement, hospital receipts, and admission card, among others, as exhibits.

The defendants, who spoke in their defence through their counsel, called three witnesses.

In his judgment, the Magistrate, Olatomiwa Daramola, found the defendants guilty and convicted them accordingly in counts 1 (assault) and 3 (unlawful damage) of the charge.

He said, “In count one, the defendants are sentenced to three months imprisonment each or a fine of N10,000; in count two (malicious damage) the defendants are discharged and acquitted; and in count three, the defendants are sentenced to one-year imprisonment each or fine of N10,000 in place of imprisonment.

“The terms are to run concurrently while the fine is consecutive”, Daramola pronounced.