A 27 year old woman, Blessing Edet, was on Wednesday sentenced to 10 years in prison for stabbing Edet Ebong, her 33 year old fiance to death during a fight over her refusal to wear an engagement ring he had given to her.
Edet was originally charged with a count charge of murder. The sentence was, however, commuted to voluntary manslaughter by the trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo.
The prosecution, led by Mr F. Oyedale had alleged that Edet committed the offence at 12:15am on Aug. 18, 2015 at her residence located at No. 1, Falana St., Ogombo, Lekki, Lagos.
Edet’s trial commenced at the high court on July 5, 2017 with five witnesses including Esther Ebong, the sister to the deceased, a medical doctor and the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) testifying for the prosecution.
Edet testified solely in her defence on Feb. 7.
According to Edet, the deceased came to her apartment at midnight and woke her up to request that she cook a meal for him, but she had refused because she was tired.
Upon hearing that she was tired, he went into the kitchen and saw the engagement ring he had given her beside the stove. He became vexed and asked why she was not wearing the ring.
She further said that he broke a mirror and used part of it to stab her, she was bleeding and was crying out to the neighbors for help.
According to her, during the scuffle she stabbed Ebong in his abdomen with a kitchen knife.
Earlier, before the sentence was passed, the Defence Counsel, Ms Favour Eboh-Mgbehoma, in her allocutus (plea for mercy) had asked that the court temper justice with mercy.