In 2023 the Lagos State High Court brought the high-profile trial of Mrs. Udeme Otike-Odibi to an end by convicting her of the premeditated murder and mutilation of her husband, Symphorosa Otike-Odibi, and passing upon her a death sentence by hanging.
On May 3, 2018, the incident occurred at their home, the Diamond Estate in Ajah, Lagos; a domestic argument concerning alleged infidelity turned violent when the lawyer Udeme Otike-Odibi stabbed her husband to death with a knife after first hitting him with a frying pan. She then mutilated his body and tried to commit suicide. She was formally charged by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice with murder and with desecrating the corpse, pleaded not guilty and was sent to Kirikiri Female Prison.
While the prosecution gave its evidence, the defence raised questions concerning the defendant’s mental stability and the admissibility of the confession. The proceedings were greatly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 EndSARS protests, which caused the original Igbosere High Court building to be destroyed. The High Court that had been moved to Tafawa Balewa Square rejected the defence’s arguments and convicted her of premeditated murder. Udeme is still on death row at Kirikiri Female Prison, waiting for the results of any appeal or for a warrant for execution to be issued.
Mrs. Udeme Otike-Odibi’s conviction was based on forensic evidence, the statements given by her family members, and the fact that the legal strategies put forward by her defence team were rejected.
It was shown by the prosecution that the marriage was characterized by serious domestic difficulties. Udeme claimed that Symphorosa was unfaithful over a long period and said that he intended to transfer their joint properties to his former wife. On the night in question he was carrying out the arrangements needed for a trip to the United Kingdom. A vigorous argument occurred before she was able to leave, in which she hit him.
Around 2:00 AM on May 3, 2018, Symphorosa’s sister, Dr. Anwuli Akwukwuma, grew deeply concerned and contacted a neighbour, Stanley Grange-Koko, to check the house. Family members and neighbours who eventually gained access found Symphorosa’s body on the bed. His intestines had been ripped open and his genitals completely severed and placed in his hand.
The prosecution’s case was heavily fortified by two critical medical testimonies:
* The well-known pathologist Dr. John Soyemi stated that Symphorosa had suffered a massive loss of blood amounting to 3.5 litres, the cause of death being solely due to the destruction of the mesentery vessels (the membrane that secures the intestines) resulting from a kitchen knife.
Udeme said that she had tried to commit suicide and was discovered to have abdominal injuries. Yet Dr. Booyemi Oyeneyin, the doctor who attended her at Safeway Hospital on the morning of the murder, stated that her six abdominal wounds were entirely superficial and that they did not penetrate any of her internal organs, describing them as highly likely to have been self-inflicted in order to fabricate a false story.
Udeme’s legal team, led by Oluseye Banjoko, attempted two primary defence avenues:
* At first they claimed that she was not in a sound state of mind at the time of the incident.
The defence made a strong effort to prevent her written statements given to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) at Panti. Their reason for this was that they claimed the confessions violated Section 93 of the Lagos State Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) since the statements had not been video-recorded or made in the presence of her lawyer.
* The prosecution replied that, according to the federal Evidence Act, a statement is admissible if it is relevant and there has been no torture or inducement—not because of technical procedural rules. Justice Adedayo Akintoye rejected the defence’s application and allowed the confessional statements to be admitted as evidence.
The court tried her under the Criminal Law of Lagos State (2015):
* Count 1 (murder): Is covered by Section 223, which provides for a mandatory death sentence.
* Count 2 (Misconduct involving a corpse): Subject to a five-year prison sentence under Section 165(b) for the mutilation of his genitals.
The prosecution showed that the murder had been premeditated rather than being a crime of passion. Just before the attack, Udeme sent a text message to her close friend Maureen Offor at 12:04 AM on May 3, 2018.
The text showed a kind of finality that worried her friend, and in order to calm her she texted Udeme again, reminding her of their agreement to put her health first, to travel to the UK and to treat her thyroid condition. But Udeme stopped her husband from escaping, attacked him with a frying pan and carried out the fatal stabbing.
The lead investigator, Assistant Superintendent of Police Olusegun Bamidele of the SCID Panti Homicide Section, stated that Symphorosa was completely surprised when she was on their marital bed.
•The physical evidence indicated that he had first been hit, which left him vulnerable before he was stabbed in the abdomen.
*The severing of his genitals was not a rapid act of rage but a methodical post-mortem mutilation. I cleaned the penis, placed it neatly into his deceased right hand, and ripped open his abdominal cavity to expose his intestines.
Udeme’s assertion of being in an “altered mental state” and of having made a suicide attempt broke down when the medical evidence was carefully examined during cross-examination.
The autopsy carried out by pathologist Dr. John Soyemi showed that Symphorosa died as a result of severe internal bleeding caused by a deep and forceful thrust that cut the mesenteric lymph vessels, an injury that required deliberate physical force.
On the other hand, Dr. Booyemi Oyeneyin, the doctor who attended to Udeme at Safeway Hospital at 7:30 AM that morning, stated that the wounds were typical instances of hesitation marks; they were exactly parallel, both in shape and depth, and had only thinly cut through the skin without breaking the abdominal wall. The court decided that these injuries constituted a staging method intended to simulate a mutual attack or a remorseful suicide attempt.
The defence, which was headed by Oluseye Banjoko, placed a great deal of emphasis on a technical constitutional challenge concerning her first statements.
*The defense referred to Section 93 of the Lagos State Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) and Section 35(2) of the 1999 Constitution. They maintained that since the SCID Panti detectives had not video-recorded her confession nor had they made sure that a lawyer was present when she was interrogated, the confession should be discarded altogether.
On April 11, 2019, Justice Adedayo Akintoye drew a clear distinction between the regional procedural rules and the statutory requirements concerning admissibility at the federal level. The High Court stated that although the ACJL offers operational guidelines to the police in Lagos, it is the Federal Evidence Act that determines what a judge may admit. Since it had been established that the statement was voluntary—that is, it was not obtained through physical torture or any form of inducement—the fact that there was no video recording of it did not make the statement inadmissible.
Justice Akintoye pointed out that although she was a trained lawyer and therefore knew that Udeme had the right to remain silent, she had nevertheless chosen to give an account of the events to ASP Bamidele. The court then combined this confession which had been admitted with the forensic evidence and imposed the mandatory death sentence provided for in Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.
