The 21-year-old bricklayer said the victim was the one who picked a bottle to stab him, adding that during the scuffle, the deceased fell on the splinters and died from the injuries.
PUNCH Metro had reported that Wasiu, an indigene of Osun State, allegedly stabbed the 30-year-old mechanic apprentice to death on Ajele Street on the Lagos Island for refusing to charge his telephone.
The victim’s boss, Olayinka Oyinloye, had said he warned Omotosho against the friendship after he (Omotosho) was arrested by the police for a crime allegedly committed by the suspect.
But Wasiu, who had earlier begged for forgiveness, recanted, saying he did not kill the victim.
He explained that he fought the deceased after he challenged him for stopping a man from going to sleep on a construction site.
He said, “I am a bricklayer and I am a professional at my job. I may be an orphan, but God is my defender. I don’t know anything about the death.
“Usually, we all sleep at a construction site and the owner of the building said we should stop sleeping there. I had stopped going there after I got another construction work. But once in a while, I buy noodles there.
“On that night, a man attempted to sleep at the site and I stopped him from going there. But Omotosho, who saw me, challenged me for stopping the man. He asked why I did not mind my business.
“I slapped him in anger for talking to me anyhow and he went to grab a bottle which he smashed on the floor. He fell inside the gutter while we wrestled and got stabbed in the armpit in the process.
“I took him to the first hospital where he was rejected before he was taken to the general hospital where he died. I did my best to save him. I didn’t kill him and people are free to say whatever they want. I know that God will vindicate me.”
A police source, however, said the suspect recanted after he was tutored by some cell inmates.
The source said the suspect’s claim was contrary to the confessional statement he made to the police at the Lion Building division and detectives at the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba.
The suspect was arraigned before an Ebute-Meta Magistrate’s Court on one count of murder on Monday.
The charge read, “That you, Ademola Wasiu, on May 26, 2016, at about 10.30pm, at Ajele Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did kill one Olamilekan, aged 30, by stabbing him with a broken bottle on his right armpit, thereby committing an offence punishable under section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.”
The Magistrate, A.O. Ajibade, ruled that he should be remanded in prison pending legal advice. The case was adjourned till July 5, 2016.
PUNCH
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