Justice Olabisi Akinlade of the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, has sentenced Okwumo Nwabufo, 39 and Olisaeloka Ezike, 28, to death for their roles in the 2012 murder of Cynthia Osukogu, who Nwabufo dated on Facebook.
They court found them guilty of chaining, drugging and strangling the deceased to death at Cosmilla Hotel, FESTAC Town, Lagos, on July 22, 2012.
The other defendants Orji Osita and Ezike Nonso were discharged and acquitted.
Justice Olabisi Akinlade of the Lagos High Court, Igbosere has found Okwumo Nwabufo, 39 and Olisaeloka Ezike, 28, guilty of the 2012 murder of Cynthia Osukogu, who Nwabufo befriended on Facebook.
They court found them guilty of chaining, drugging and strangling the deceased to death at Cosmilla Hotel, FESTAC Town, Lagos, on July 22, 2012.
Judgment is ongoing.
Irked by the seeming delay tactics employed by defence counsel in the ongoing trial of alleged murderers of Cynthia Osokogu, Justice Olabisi Akinlade of a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, has threatened to return the fourth defendant, Nonso Ezike, to prison.
Justice Akinlade who frowned at the unavailability of Ezike’s lawyer, C.J. Ajakona, in court during Tuesday’s proceedings, noted that the lawyers were deliberately frustrating the trial.
She vowed to revoke Ezike’s bail at the next adjournment if his lawyer fail to file his “no case submission” application before her.
Ezike, a brother to the second defendant, Olisaeloka Ezike, is being tried for selling the late Osokogu’s BlackBerry Phone.
Justice Akinlade said: “I tell you at the next adjourned date if nothing is filed, I will revoke your bail and send you back to prison. Then your lawyer will know what to do.
“It is because you have been on bail that is why your lawyer is wasting the time of the court. It is a deliberate act.
“The court is already on vacation but I left the comfort of my home, thinking that the case will go on today, only for my time to be wasted.”
According to Ezike, he was informed his counsel had a fatal accident when he called his telephone on Monday.
The fourth defendant also told the court that he has a feeling his lawyer was not serious with the matter, recalling how the counsel told him he had forgotten about the matter when he called him before the last adjournment.
He notified the court of his intention to appoint Chris Obiaka, counsel to the third defendant, Osita Orji (Pharmacist) to take over his representation.
Adjourning the case to October 26 for adoption of “no case submission” of the third and fourth defendants, Justice Akinlade held that Ezike’s lawyer must file and serve his application for ruling by the next date.
Osokogu, 25, was drugged, assaulted and murdered on July 22, 2012 at Cosmilla Hotel in Lake View Estate, Amuwo Odofin, Lagos.
The primary suspects in her murder – Okwumo Nwabuifo (34) and Olisaeloka Ezike (25) were said to have picked her from the airport on her arrival from Abuja, after meeting on Facebook.
A Lagos High Court, Igbosere, yesterday heard that the alleged murderers of Facebook lover, Cynthia Osokogu had it all planned few days before she was killed.
How Olisaeloka Ezike (second defendant) went to Agboju Market at the instance of Okumo Nwabufo (first defendant) and purchased chain and
celotape, which they used in ‘killing’ Cynthia was disclosed by a prosecution witness, Joseph Edo.
Led in Evidence by the state Attorney General, Ade Ipaye, Edo told the court that “it is the defendants’ stock-in-trade to invite women to
hotels, drug and rape them”.
He told the Justice Olabisi Akinlade presided court that Okumo and Ezike had it in mind to kill Cynthia on her arrival in Lagos.
“From my investigation, I discovered that the first defendant sent the second defendant to Agboju Market to buy the instruments they used for the operation-Chain and Celotape- few days before Cynthia was killed.
“The second defendant (Ezike) after getting the items and while still at the market, used his phone to snap them and forwarded the picture to the first defendant (Nwabufo).
“He equally sent Nwabufo a text message from his phone asking if “this was the chain and celotape you asked me to buy?”.
“Nwabufo replied Ezike that it will be okay for the job. The messages are all in their phones,” Edo said.
Continuing, the witness told the court that he also discovered that the third defendant, Orji Osita, who is a pharmacist, aided the primary
suspects to commit the crime by supplying them the Rohypnol used in subduing the deceased before they carried out the killing.
He said the fourth defendant, Nonso Ezike dishonestly received Cynthia’s Blackberry phone from his elder brother who is the second defendant.
“It was discovered that it was not the first phone he (Nonso) bought from the second defendant and he has knowledge of the first and second
defendants stock-in-trade.
“They specialise in bringing in ladies into hotel room, enticing them with
one or two things and then rape them,” Edo said.
Earlier, Justice Akinlade admitted in evidence, the confessional statements and video evidence made at Festac Police Station on August 20, 2012 by Nwabufo and Ezike admitting the murder.
In a ruling delivered on the admissibility of the statements made by the first and second defendants, after they alleged that their statements were
gotten under durex, Justice Akinlade held that their allegations before the court were concocted as there was no evidence to buttress their
claims.
She said the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt the statements were voluntarily made, adding that from her examination of the
confessional statements, the handwritings of the defendant did not show they were under torture to write them.
“The defendants were questioned in an open place and were also asked by the Area Commander if they made their statements voluntarily, which they attested in the affirmative.
“Moreover, from the video evidence, the defendants looked well and untortured. It was when the Area Commander realised their narration was the same as contained in their confessional statements that he requested for a cameraman to video them.
“I hereby rule that the prosecution has proven its case in the trial-within-trial to determine the admissibility of the confessional
statements made by the first and second defendants on August 20, 2012 at Festac Police Station were voluntary.
“I hereby admit the confessional statements and video evidence made by the defendants and tendered by the prosecution as exhibits,” she held.
The matter has been adjourned to March 13 for continuation of trial.
Justice Olabisi Akinlade of a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on Monday accused the defence counsel of stalling the trial of the four men charged with the murder of Cynthia Osokogu in Lagos in 2012.
Akinlade made the accusation when counsel to the first and second defendants — Miss Mosunmola Oladapo and Mr. Michael Ajayi – were unable to file their written addresses as directed by the court.
The defendants are Okwumo Nwabufo (33),Olisaeloka Ezike (23), Orji Osita (33) and Ezike Nonso (25).
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Osokogu was allegedly murdered on July 22, 2012 at Cosmilla Hotel, Lakeview Estate, Festac Town, Lagos, by her facebook lovers – Ezike and Nwabufo.
The counsel had at the last hearing closed their defence for the “trial within trial’’ which was to determine how statements were obtained from the defendants.
At the resumed hearing, the counsel told the court that they were unable to file their written addresses because of their inability to obtain the records of proceedings.
The judge then accused the counsel of deliberately stalling the trial, noting that they failed to consider that the accused were still in prison custody.
“I followed up with the registrar to make sure that the record of court proceedings is ready, but you did not show up to collect it,” Akinlade said.
The judge ordered that the written addresses should be filed and served on the prosecution within the next ten days, while other response should be done in two weeks.
She adjourned the case to February 27 for the adoption of written addresses.
The prime suspect in the murder of Cynthia Osokogu, Okwumo Nwbufo, on Wednesday told a Lagos High Court, Igbosere, that the police forced him to admit that he killed the Army General’s daughter.
Nwabufo 34, who is standing trial with Olisaeloka Ezike(24), Orji Osita (33) and Ezike Nonso (25), said he was tortured to make statements that is being used against him.
The defendants were charged to court by the state government, after they were alleged to have chained, drugged and strangled the deceased at Cosmilla Hotel, FESTAC Town, Lagos, on July 22, 2012.
Led in evidence by his counsel, Victor Okpara, Nwabufo, who had at the last hearing, told the court that his confessional statements were made under duress, narrated how the police forced him.
At Wednesday’s trial within trial to determine how statements were obtained during investigation, Nwabufo said the police who came to arrest him called him a murderer and beat him up.
“On the day I was arrested, up to 20 policemen broke into my apartment and asked for my name after which they called me a murderer and started beating me,
“I was later blindfolded while I was putting on only pant and taken into their vehicle then we drove to the police station,” he said.
According to Nwabufo, he asked the police to allow him contact his lawyer or relatives which they refused.
“When we got to the police station, I was taken to the Area Commander, Dan Okoro’s office who showed me a lady’s picture and asked if I knew her.
“I said yes, she is my friend and he immediately called me a murderer while he pinched the upper part of my left eye with a plier.
“I was then taken to a room where I was chained and tortured to accept whatever they (the police) told us concerning the murder,” said Nwabufo.
The defendant explained that it was during this torture that the police brought out a suspect and shot him on the leg to show that they would shoot us if we do not comply.
“One of the policemen released tear-gas into my left eye and have not being able to see with it since then,” he said.
He also claimed that it was the torture that led to the statement which was being dictated to him at different times.
Miss Vivian Amuneke, a receptionist at Cosmilla Hotel, Festac Town, Lagos, where Cynthia Osokogu was murdered, on Friday confessed that she lied to the police after the corpse was discovered.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Amuneke made the confession while testifying before a Lagos High Court in Ikeja at the resumed trial of four men allegedly involved in the murder.
The defendants; Okwumo Nwabufo (33), Olisaeloka Ezike (23), Orji Osita (33) and Ezike Nonso (25) were arraigned before Justice Olabisi Akinlade on February 8.
They were charged by the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on six counts bordering on conspiracy, murder, stealing, reckless negligence and possession of stolen goods.
The prosecution alleged that 25-year-old Osokogu was murdered at the hotel on July 22 last year by Nwabufo and Ezike, whom she had met through a social networking site, Facebook.
Osita, the third defendant, was charged for negligently selling the Rohypnol Flunitrazepan tablets which was allegedly used to drug the deceased.
Nonso, the man who allegedly bought Osokogu’s stolen Blackberry Bold 5, was charged for being in possession of a stolen phone.
However, testifying on Friday, Amuneke told the court that she booked Room 1C, where Osokogu was killed to Nwabufo and Ezike, with a “used” receipt.
The 28-year-old witness who was led in evidence by Lagos State Attorney General, Mr. Ade Ipaye, said she lied twice in her statements to the police in order to conceal her fraudulent act.
She explained that the room was earlier booked by a couple who had checked-out early but she resold it to the defendants instead of declaring it vacant to the hotel management.
Amuneke said:”The money paid by the second defendant (Ezike) who gave his name to me as John, was shared by me and the porter, Oscar.
“Since the room has already been paid for by the couple who left, I issued a used receipt to the second defendant.”
“I later lied to the police that I gave them the room because Nwabufo had told me that he was related to the couple that had checked-out.
“I told them this because I was scared but the truth is that I resold the room and failed to remit the money to the hotel’s account.”
She further told the court that Nwabufo later went upstairs to the room accompanied by a female guest, who was tall and slim, at about 10 pm.
“I did not really see her face because she was busy pinging with her phone but I know that she was tall and slim”, the witness said.
Amuneke said she was relieved the next morning by her colleague, Mrs. Ifeanyinwa Njegbu and she went home.
Four persons suspected to have killed Cynthia Osokogu were on Tuesday arraigned before a Lagos High Court, Ikeja.
They are Okwumo Nwabufo, Ezike Olisaeloka, Orji Osita and Ezike Nonso.
The suspects were arraigned before Justice Olabisi Akinlade on a six- count charge of murder, stealing and possession of stolen property.
However, their trial could not proceed as planned as counsels to the defendants in the matter told the court that they were not properly served with the court processes.
Olu Kayode, the counsel to the second and fourth defendants, also told the court that the statements of his clients were not included in the amended charge.
The prosecution team led by the Lagos State Attorney General, Mr. Ade Ipaye, admitted to the mix up in serving the processes to one of the defence counsel but promised to immediately resolve the issue.
The presiding judge, Justice Olabisi Akinlade subsequently adjourned the matter to February 8 for commencement of trial.
The matter came up earlier in January but was similarly adjourned because one of the defendants, Osita was not in court
Presenting its case before the court, the state alleged that two of the suspects, Okwumo and Ezike on or about July 22, 2012 at Cosmilla Hotel, Amuwo-Odofin, Festac Town, conspired to murder Cynthia.
The state alleged that the suspects murdered Cynthia by administering Rohypnol Flunitrazepan tablet into her drink, chained her hands and legs and strangled her to death.
The duo were also alleged to have stolen three blackberry phones valued at N150,000, Jewelries, an international passport and a drivers licence belonging to the victim after they strangled her to death.