The Lagos court has sentenced Benjamin Ogudoro to death for killing his wife and brother-in-law by setting them ablaze.
The court ruled on Thursday that evidence shows that the defendant killed the deceased and therefore deserves maximum punishment.
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The convict had set his wife and brother-in-law ablaze around midnight while they were asleep in 2022 at their residence in the Abule-Ado area of the state.
His late wife, Chinyere Ogudoro, had just returned from Scotland before her untimely death.
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The court found the defendant guilty of four counts of murder and arson. For murder and arson, the court sentenced the defendant to death by hanging and life imprisonment, respectively.
Before the commencement of his trial, the defendant pleaded not guilty.
However, during the judgment, the judge, Sherifat Sonaike said that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offence.
“He devised, prepared, and executed the act. This is wickedness of the highest order,” the judge remarked.
The court noted that the defendant showed no remorse throughout the proceedings of the case and described his actions as the worst thing a person could do to another.
Meanwhile, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Martins Babajide, led the prosecution team, while Laura Ogwuagbaka represented the defendant.
The prosecution argued that the marriage was toxic, which led the man to plan and pour fuel on his wife and brother-in-law, setting them ablaze and resulting in their deaths.
Witnesses’ accounts
One of the witnesses testified that the deceased’s body was badly burnt, with her limbs even falling off due to the severity of the burns.
The wife’s brother, Ifeanyi, also died from severe burns sustained, though he did not die immediately.
The burns caused his body to be unable to supply blood to his system, and parts of his body were severed.
The court also received evidence that a neighbour saw the defendant with a fuel gallon as he fled from the burning house.
Further evidence showed that the second deceased person, Ifeanyi, told his neighbour how the defendant set them on fire before he later died.
Edna Durueke, the 64-year-old aunt of the victims, told BBC Pidgin in 2022 that the incident occurred on 31 March 2022, when the deceased woman returned from Scotland.
“It was her first night back, and unfortunately, she didn’t see the next day,” she said.
Mrs Durueke mentioned that the husband and wife had reconciled their quarrel before she travelled abroad, but the wife did not know that her husband was still upset.
She said they later discovered that the husband’s anger stemmed from finding out that his wife had put only her name on the documents for the house they lived in.
“My niece was a banker who was doing well in Nigeria before they travelled. Before she left, they were living in a rented apartment in Dopemu,” she narrated.
“She later gathered money, bought land in Abule-Ado, and built the house. Afterwards, she got a student visa to study in Scotland, which allowed her to bring her family, including her four children and her husband.”
“None of us knew why the husband decided to remain in Nigeria. But later, we heard that the man was trying to sell the house. Unfortunately, he couldn’t sell it because the wife’s name was on all the documents.
She said this act made the deceased’s husband angry and allegedly led him to commit the crime.
“We don’t know of any other reasons apart from the fact that they quarrelled before, which they later reconciled.”
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