Lawyer Confessed To Murdering, Cutting Off Husband’s Private Part- Police
An Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Olusegun Bamidele, on Wednesday told a Lagos State High Court in Igbosere that the lawyer, Udeme Otike-Odibi, who allegedly murdered her husband, Symphorosa Otike-Odibi and cut off his penis allegedly confessed to the crimes.
Bamidele, the ninth prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Udeme, told the trial judge, Justice Adedayo Akintoye that during an interactive session, the accused person wrote a detailed confessional statement.
Udeme Otike-Odibi was arraigned before the court by the Lagos State government on a two count charge of murder and Misconduct with regard to a Corpse.
The Prosecuting counsel, Babatunde Sunmonu, informed the judge that the defendant allegedly murdered her 50 year old husband, who is also a lawyer, at their residence, on May 3, 2018, at their resident.
The prosecutor also claimed that the defendant allegedly threatened her husband with a knife and eventually stabbed him to death and went further to mutilate his body, by cutting off his private part.
According to Sunmonu, the offence of murder is contrary to Section 223 and punishable by death, while Misconduct with regard to a Corpse contrary to Section 165(b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015 punishable with five years imprisonment.
She, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Wednesday, Bamidele, who works in the homicide section of the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told the court that he was the head of a team that investigated the killing and that he personally recorded the defendant’s statement.
The witness also claimed that the second time he met Udeme, she had been moved from Safeway Hospital in Lekki to protective police custody at a police hospital at Ikeja.
He stated that the defendant was recuperating from what one of the doctors that attended to her described as “superficial and self-inflicted wounds,” but that she spoke freely after identifying herself as a lawyer.
Bamidele testified that, “While she (Udeme) was writing her statement, it was an interactive session. I put questions to her, she would explain it to me and put it down in writing.
“She stated in her statement that she was married to the late Symphorosa and that they were having marital issues.
“She stated that the deceased was having extra-marital affairs and whenever she raised the issue with him, his responses were not satisfactory, he appeared nonchalant.
“She said also in the statement that on the second of May 2018, she was preparing to travel to the United Kingdom. She checked the bedside locker for her marriage certificate. When she could not find it, she went to the deceased where he lay on the bed and asked him about it but there was no response, the response given was not okay.
“She had a discussion with him and there was hot exchange of words, which made her to go to the kitchen and get a frying pan and knife.
“When she returned to where the deceased lay, she hit him on the head with the frying pan and said ‘Tell me, what is in your mind that you are withholding.
“She stated that the deceased called his mother to report her conduct. She continued to hit the deceased on the head again and again. Finally, she confirmed that she used the knife to stab the deceased in his abdomen.
“She also said while the deceased was lying on his back, she was still angry. She sat beside him, looking at his intestines coming out of the deceased and said: ‘If this your penis is the one that is giving you license not to have the feeling of another person, it’s better we cut it off,’ and she proceeded to do so with the same knife she used in stabbing him and hanged a piece of the penis in his right hand,” the witness stated.
Bamidele further testified that later that night, Udeme sent her “close friend” Maureen Offor, a WhatsApp message which read: “I have done something terrible.”
The witness also maintained that investigation showed that she sent two other WhatsApp message, firstly to the husband of the deceased’s younger sister, Charles Akpoguma, which read: “Just pray for us. May God forgive.”
“The last one was to her mother in Calabar the same night. It read: “Sorry mum, we engaged in a fight.”
“Her mum tried and failed to call her back, Bamidele said. A few minutes later, Udeme called back and said: “Don’t disturb my life, let my phone free so I can receive calls from the ambulance.” Then she cut the call.
Things took a more graphic turn when the prosecution played pictures of the defendant on a hospital bed after the incident and her bloodied deceased husband on his deathbed.
Udeme looked straight in front of her from where sat in the dock while the amplified pictures were displayed on a wall to her right.
Shitta-Bey also tendered through Bamidele several exhibits recovered from the defendant.
They included a big, shiny frying pan allegedly used by the defendant on the deceased, a blood covered kitchen knife Udeme allegedly used in killing Symphorosa, a blood stained pen, four phones, two of which were blood stained, Udeme’s Nigerian and British passports.
But, when the prosecutor, Shitta-Bey sought to tender the two extrajudicial statements Udeme allegedly made to the police, her counsel, Olusegun Banjoko, opposed the move.
Banjoko, after showing the statements to his client, prayed the court not to admit both, on the ground, among others, that they were made without her lawyer being present, as required by law.
Justice Akintoye adjourned till February 25 to consider the admissibility of the statements in a trial within trial.