Hunter mistakes man for antelope, shoots him dead in Ogun

ABEOKUTA — A 40-year-old hunter, Oguntola Joel, was yesterday arraigned before an Abeokuta magistrate’s court sitting in Isabo for allegedly shooting dead one Obasi John while pursuing an antelope in the bush. The prosecutor, Inspector Augustine Ozimini, told the court that Joel committed the murder on March 28, in a farm at Orile-Ilugun, Abeokuta while on hunting expedition. He said that the offence was contrary to section 316(1) of the criminal code laws of Ogun State of Nigeria, 2006. But the accused denied that he deliberately killed the man, saying he went to his farm to hunt as usual on the fateful day when he saw an antelope and shot towards the direction of the animal, but surprisingly, he heard the groan of a human being. According to him, I went to the police station to report the matter and I later took the man to hospital for treatment but he died the following day. “I did not shoot him intentionally, I was running after an antelope not a human being,” he said. The magistrate, Emmanuel Adekunte, who did not take the plea of the accused due to the nature of the charge, remanded the accused in prison custody and adjourned the case till July 11, 2014, pending the advice of the Director Public Prosecution, DPP.