A graphic description of how a Lagos based lawyer, Udeme, allegedly killed her husband, Symphorosa Otike-Odibi, and cut off his penis last year was given at an Igbosere High Court, Lagos on Wednesday.
The description was give at the court by a witness, ASP Olusegun Bamidele, who is of the Homicide Section, State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Panti, Lagos.
According to Bamidele, the description was given by Udeme in her confessional statement.
It would be recalled that Udeme was brought to court on June 13, 2018 on a two-count charge of murder and misconduct in connection with a corpse by Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Titilayo Shitta-Bey.
Witnessing in the case, the prosecutor said the female lawyer after stabbing her husband to death, cut of his penis at their Diamond Estate, Sangotedo, Lekki, residence on May 3, 2018.
The offence, the prosecutor said, violated Sections 165 (b) and 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Udeme has since pleaded not guilty and was remanded in prison custody.
Appearing as the state’s final witness on Wednesday, Bamidele who was the head of the team that investigated the killing said he personally recorded the defendant’s statement.
The statement, he said, was made during an interactive session with Udeme.
His words: “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 that on May 2, 2018, she was preparing to travel to United Kingdom when 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 to have the feeling of another person, it’s better we cut it off,’ 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.”
Bamidele disclosed that after the incident, Udeme sent a WhatsApp message to her “close friend”, Maureen Offor, that she had done “something terrible.”
Also, he said, it was gathered that she sent another WhatsApp message to the husband of the deceased’s younger sister saying, “Just pray for us. May God forgive.”
Her last message, Bamidele added, was to her mother in Calabar reading: “Sorry mum, we engaged in a fight.”
The pictures of the defendant on a hospital bed after the incident and her bloodied deceased husband on his deathbed, was later played, giving graph details.
