NIGERIA: DOMESTIC STAFF SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING GRANDMA, DAUGHTER

March 30, 2023:

A domestic staff, Joseph Ogbu, was sentenced to death by hanging on 27 March 2023 for killing his employer, an 89-year-old grandmother, Ajoke, and her daughter, Oreoluwa, in their home in Lagos.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Modupe Nicole-Clay, sitting at the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, found the defendant guilty of a three-count charge of armed robbery and murder. The charges were preferred against him by the Lagos State government.
The defendant committed the offence on June 19, 2019 by killing one Adejoke John, by strangulating her to death and stabbing Oreoluwa to death. He pleaded not guilty when arraigned on October 22, 2019, to a three-count charge of armed robbery and murder, contrary to Section 222 and 297 of Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
Ogbu, while armed with a knife, robbed Adejoke John of her Toyota Camry Saloon car, with Registration No. FST 104 CW, LG plasma TV, motorway handset, one Gionee handset, one Nokia phone, one i-Tel Phone and one power bank.
The trial judge held that the defendant confessed to the crime.
In his allocutus, the defence counsel, Mr. Moses Enema, told the judge: “The defendant is a first time offender, a son to a young widow, largely dependent on this son. In the course of the trial, my lord, the defendant was very remorseful, it’s an indication that he is willing to take a new leave. We do pray for the court to temper justice with mercy.”
Sentencing him to death for all the three counts, Justice Nicole-Clay pronounced: “This court has found Joseph Ogbu guilty of these heinous crimes; you are, hereby, sentenced to death by hanging. May God have mercy on your soul.”