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Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja Special Offences Court on Tuesday sentenced a chef, Joshua Usulor, to 28-year imprisonment for killing a 34- year old lawyer, Mrs. Feyisayo Obot, Njenje Media News reports.
According to THE NATION, the 23-year-old chef reportedly killed the lawyer, an Abuja based mother of two on January 26, 2019, at the Citiheights Hotel, Opebi, Lagos State where both of them lodged, by slitting her throat while robbing her in her hotel room on the day she was due to leave the hotel.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo sentenced Usulor following a plea bargain agreement with the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP).
The DPP had in the agreement recommended a term of 21 years’ imprisonment which would begin from the date of Usulor’s remand.
However, during resumed proceedings on Tuesday, Justice Taiwo rejected the proposed prison term as being too lenient for the crime committed.
The judge said she would exercise the power conferred on her by Section 75 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law to increase the prison term to 30 years.
In his allocutus, the convict’s counsel, Spurgeon Ataene, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy.
He submitted that Usulor was remorseful, adding that he was a young man with a promising future.
While sentencing Usulor, Taiwo asked why he killed the lawyer.
“It was a mistake, I didn’t know what got into me,” he responded.
“Your mistake has cost someone her life,” the judge said.
Pronouncing judgement on the convict, Justice Taiwo sentenced Usulor to 28-year imprisonment.
She said the prison terms would serve as deterrence to others.
The prosecution led by Mrs O.A. Bajulaiye-Bishi, had said Usulor, a resident of Number 30, Fadiya Street, Ketu, Lagos went into Obot’s hotel room to rob her to offset his outstanding hotel bills.
Obot, an employee of an Abuja-based non-governmental – Save the Children – was in Lagos to write a project management examination.
During the trial, four witnesses testified for the prosecution including witnesses who testified during the hotel receptionist, Ms Lateefat Adebayo; the hotel’s Operations Manager, Mr Olabanji Ibitunde; brother of the deceased, Mr Ige Afolabi and the Investigating Police Officer, Inspector John Babalola.
Usulor was arraigned on a lone count charge of murder contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2015.
