Welder accused of N40, 000 iron rod theft jumps to death in court

A 41-year-old welder, Wasiu Alowonle, who was standing trial for allegedly stealing an iron rod worth N40,000, jumped out of a courtroom window and died immediately.
The deceased was arraigned by the Police before Magistrate O. I. Raji of the Ogba Magistrate’s Court, Ogba, Lagos, on a count charge of stealing, but pleaded not guilty to the accusation.
It was gathered that the accused was granted N20,000 bail and a surety by the magistrate after proving his stance before the court. While the court staff and prosecutor were waiting for the accused to perfect his bail condition at Court 20, it was gathered that the deceased decided to leave the premises through the window.
An eyewitness narrated that Alowonle was not lucky as, after jumping through the court window, his head hit the ground, an apparent indication that he allegedly misjudged the distance between the window and the floor. They stated that the accused, who had been in Kirikiri Prisons, embarked on the action during the announcement of the next hearing date by the Court Clerk on Wednesday.
A court guard hinted that before the act, the deceased was already looking pale and frustrated when he was brought in by prison warders for trial.
Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, officials were said to have evacuated the corpse. A source in LASEMA said the body was handed over to officials of State Environment Health Monitoring Unit, SEHMU.
Vanguard