Houseboy’s death: Wife jailed 10 years for manslaughter

A Lagos High Court in Ikeja has sentenced  27 -year- old Mrs. Chiamaka Nnajiofor to 10 years imprisonment for flogging her househelp to death.

The court commuted the murder charge preferred against the woman to manslaughter, while it discharged and acquitted her 41-year-old husband, Elochukwu Nnajiofor.

They had both pleaded not guilty to the murder charge preferred against them by the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution.

 Justice Lateefat Okunnu, in her judgment on Monday, ruled that Chiamaka’s sentence would commence from the day she was arraigned along with her husband on September 22, 2011.

The couple was charged with murder for beating their 14-year-old houseboy, Oliver Arakwe, to death on August 17, 2010.

The incident was said to have occurred at the couple’s residence at 81, Femi Tella Street, Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos.

Delivering her judgment, Okunnu held that the prosecution, led by Mr. Femi Adamson, had failed to connect Elochukwu with the alleged crime with the various testimonies and exhibits that were before the court.

Okunnu held, “The evidential burden against the second defendant is very weak. There is nothing to show that he was part of the flogging his wife instigated that day and available evidence indicated that he was not in the apartment when it happened.”

The judge also held that that the prosecution was unable to prove the charge of murder against the two of them.

She said, “Oliver was a severely malnourished looking 14-year-old boy and the pounding of a belt would have had a lesser effect on a normal 14-year-old.

“It is on this basis that I find the first defendant not guilty of murder. I find instead that she is guilty of manslaughter.

“The second defendant is discharged and acquitted.”