A TWENTY-SEVEN-YEAR old commercial sex worker, Nkechi Okafor, was brought to reckoning Monday as an Ikeja High Court sentenced her to six years imprisonment for murdering her client, Abiodun Sarumi.
Okafor was found guilty of manslaughter by the judge, Lateefa Okunnu, following the amendment of the charge from murder to manslaughter by the prosecution. The judge said there was overwhelming evidence that Okafor acted on impulse by stabbing Sarumi, but without intent to kill.
Okunnu also noted that Okafor’s defence for the act was not enough to exonerate her from the crime and therefore gave her a six-year jail term, starting from the time she was remanded in prison custody.
After the court pronounced her guilty, the convict, who broke down in tears, pleaded for leniency. She told the court that she was very sorry for what happened. Her counsel, Mrs. A. Onabolu, also pleaded on her behalf on the ground that the defendant was a first offender and a young woman in her prime, who had expressed sorry for what happened. However, the court did not heed the plea.
Okafor was first arraigned on March 16, 2012, on a one-count charge of murder. According to the prosecuting counsel, Olabisi Ogungbesan, the accused had on March 2, 2010, at about 23:30 hours at Nice Time Hotel, Old Ipaja Road, Lagos, killed her client, one Mr. Abiodun Sarumi, by stabbing him with a bottle on his shoulder, close to the armpit.
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