Court discharges, acquits nurse of murder

An Ikeja high court has discharged and acquitted a 55-year-old nurse, Nkese Iroakasi, of the offence of murder.

Justice Raliat Adebiyi on Wednesday pronounced Iroakasi not guilty of the murder of her maid, nine-year-old Eno Bassey.

The court held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Iroakasi was facing a charge of murdering Bassey at her residence located at Surulere, Lagos at 2:30 pm on July 27, 2013.

“The prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the deceased died as a result of the defendant’s action.

“The defendant, Nkese Iroakasi, is hereby found not guilty of the one-count charge of murder preferred against her.
She is hereby discharged and acquitted and shall be released forthwith from custody.”
During the trial, the prosecution led by Mrs R.O Ahmed-Muili, had alleged that Iroakasi set Bassey alight over an allegation that she (Bassey) stole a piece of meat.

It was further alleged that Bassey, after being set ablaze ran outside their house into the streets with the flames on her body.

The prosecution said the flames were doused by passersby whom she allegedly told that her boss set her alight because of theft.

She later died as a result of the injuries from the burns ten days after the incident at the Gbagada General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos.

Five witnesses- a security guard, an architect who was a passerby, two police officers and a medical doctor while testifying during the trial, claimed that the child kept on muttering “mummy”, indicative of the fact that she identified Iroakasi as her assailant.

Iroakasi, in her defence on March 20, denied the claims of the prosecution.

According to her, Bassey had set herself ablaze while playing with the kerosene stove in the kitchen.

She said: “I was lying down and resting in the living room because I was due for a night shift at work.

“I heard a loud noise from the direction of the kitchen and Eno who was on fire, ran into the living room and into the streets,” she said.

Adebiyi in her judgment held that the evidence of the prosecution was not strong enough to secure a conviction.
“All the prosecution witnesses were not eye witnesses to the murder, so none of them saw how the deceased sustained her injuries.

“The defendant did not make any confessional statement.The statement of the defendant tendered to the court dated July 29, 2013 and August 8, 2013 did not contain a confession by the defendant.

“The evidence before the court was circumstantial evidence. Evidence to ground a guilty conviction must be positively unequivocal to lead irresistibility to the conclusion that it was the accused that committee the offence,” she said.

The judge also noted that there were inconsistencies in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses about the ‘dying declaration’ of the deceased that it was Iroakasi that set her ablaze.