By Aderoju Israel
A Special Offences Court in Ikeja has sentenced a 23-year-old chef named Joshua Usulor to 28 years’ imprisonment for killing a 34-year-old lawyer, Feyisayo Obot.
Call News reported that the incident took place on January 26, 2019 at the Citiheights Hotel, Opebi, Lagos, where they both lodged in different rooms.
Obot, who was an Abuja-based mum, was slitted on her throat by Uslor while she was being robbed in her hotel room.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, on Tuesday, sentenced Usulor after he approached the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) for a plea bargain agreement in which he would plead guilty to the crime.
The DPP, had in the agreement, approved a term of 21 years’ imprisonment which would begin from the date of Usulor’s remand.
The judge, however, wasn’t pleased with the agreement as she thought it was too lenient. Justice Taiwo exercised the power conferred on her by Section 75 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law to increase the prison term to 30 years.
Following an allocutus (plea for leniency) by Usolor’s counsel, the Judge eventually reduced the prison sentence to 28 years.
In the allocutus, Usolor’s counsel told the court to temper justice with mercy. He submitted that his client 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.
The prosecution led by O.A. Bajulaiye-Bishi had said that Usulor, who resided in No. 30, Fadiya Street, Ketu, Lagos, went into Obot’s hotel room to rob her in order to offset his outstanding hotel bills.
Obot, who was an employee of an Abuja-based NGO Save the Children, was in Lagos to write a project management examination was killed on the day she was due to checkout of the hotel.
The prosecution was still presenting witnesses in the case when Usulor proposed a plea bargain agreement.
Prosecution witnesses who testified include the hotel receptionist, Lateefat Adebayo; the hotel Operations Manager, Olabanji Ibitunde; brother of the deceased, Ige Afolabi; and the Investigating Police Officer, Inspector John Babalola.
Usulor was arraigned on a count charge of murder contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2015 which prescribed death for any individual found guilty of murder.
