A Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Monday
sentenced 27 years old Mrs. Chiamaka
Nnajiofor to 10 years imprisonment for
flogging her house maid to death.
The court commuted the murder charge
preferred against the woman to
manslaughter, while it discharged and
acquitted her 41-year-old husband,
Elochukwu Nnajiofor.
They had both pleaded not guilty to the
murder charge preferred against them by
the Lagos State Directorate of Public
Prosecution.
Justice Lateefat Okunnu, in her judgment on
Monday, ruled that Chiamaka’s sentence
would commence from the day she was
arraigned along with her husband on
September 22, 2011.
The couple was charged with murder for
beating their 14-year-old houseboy, Oliver
Arakwe, to death on August 17, 2010.
The incident was said to have occurred at
the couple’s residence at 81, Femi Tella
Street, Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos.
Delivering her judgment, Okunnu held that
the prosecution, led by Mr. Femi Adamson,
had failed to connect Elochukwu with the
alleged crime with the various testimonies
and exhibits that were before the court.
Okunnu held, “The evidential burden against
the second defendant is very weak. There is
nothing to show that he was part of the
flogging his wife instigated that day and
available evidence indicated that he was not
in the apartment when it happened.”
The judge also held that that the prosecution
was unable to prove the charge of murder
against the two of them.
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