A middle-aged man, Hassan Yahaya, has been jailed 10 years for killing his friend with a knife during a fight over sweet melon seeds.

The State High Court in Yola found Yahaya guilty of killing Bapeto Suleiman of Lainde village in Shelleng Local Government Area of Adamawa State in 2014.

The incident occurred during a fight between the two friends over the seeds of sweet melon.

According to the prosecution, the fight broke out when the deceased bought a sweet melon and was eating it with his friends, including the convict.

The prosecution added that the deceased was gathering the seeds of the melon in a polythene bag when the convict told him to stop picking the seeds, resulting in a fight.

The court was told that the deceased was the first to bring out a knife before the convict also brought out his own and stabbed Mr Bapeto to death.

Delivering the judgement after the counsel to the defendant pleaded for leniency, Justice Abdul-Aziz Waziri sentenced Yahaya to 10 years imprisonment for manslaughter.

The court declared that the jail term will start counting from 2014 when the convict was taken into custody and urged Yahaya to be of good behaviour and not to engage in a fight anymore.