A Lagos Magistrate’s Court sitting in Yaba, on Wednesday remanded 48-year-old lawyer Udeme Otike-Odibi to Kirikiri prisons over the alleged murder of her husband, Sym Otike- Odibi.
Chief Magistrate Kikelomo Ayeye while remanding the defendant ordered the comptroller of prisons to allow her doctor to see her. She also ordered that the comptroller of prison give her access to her lawyer so that he can see her privately without any interference of the prison warders.
The Chief Superintendent of Police, Effiong Asuquo, the Officer in Charge of Legal Department of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department Panti (SCIID), told the court that the defendant committed the offence on May 3 at Diamond Estate, Sangotedo, Lekki.
Asuquo alleged that the defendant had stabbed her husband, Otike, with a knife, spilling his intestines before proceeding to cut off his genitals. He also said that the defendant tried to commit suicide by inflicting injuries on herself before she was rescued and rushed to the hospital.
Asuquo urged the court to remand the defendant in prison for the next 30 days.
He said that the case file had been duplicated and sent to the State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to obtain legal advice.
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He said there’s an application for remand, brought pursuant to section 264 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2015.
“The Court is informed that there is probable cause to order the remand of Udeme Otike Odibi of Diamond Estate, Sangotedo, Lekki Lagos, in prison custody: who is reasonable to have committed the offence of murder having on May 3, 2018, at Diamond Estate, Sangotedo, Lekki Lagos, killed her husband, one Sym Otike Odibi, within the jurisdiction of this court.
“He said that the remand request was on the grounds that the defendant on May 3, 2018, stabbed her spouse to death and also use the same knife she used to kill him to cut off the deceased’s genitals.
“That on or about early hours of Thursday, May 3, 2018, the deceased and the defendant while in their house had a domestic misunderstanding and in the course of the domestic misunderstanding the defendant used a sharp kitchen knife to stab the deceased on the belly to the extent that the deceased’s intestines came out,” the remand request read in part.
Asuquo added that “The matter has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecution DPP, for legal advice, we are asking for the first 30 days.”
The counsel to the defendant Oluseye Bamijoko told the court that he would not be opposing the remand request but that the defendant should be remanded at the Ikoyi prisons, instead of Kirikiri prison as she has Thyroid Inflammation disease that requires the attention of neurologists and endocrinologists, Thyroid Specialist.
“I urge the court to remand her at Ikoyi prison since the specialists attending to her are within Ikoyi/Victoria Island axis,” he said.
Bamijoko also told the court that the defendant is currently undergoing psychiatric and private evaluation.
But, the Chief Magistrate, Ayeye, refused the request of the defence counsel and ordered the remand of the defendant in Kirikiri prison.
She ruled that Ikoyi prison does not have facilities for female inmates, so the defendant should be remanded at Kirikiri prison.
“Being that Kirikiri does not stop the specialists and endocrinologists from visiting and it’s sad that the Ikoyi prison lacks facilities for the female gender,’’ Ayeye said.
The chief magistrate also said that the burial of the deceased, which was scheduled to hold today, (Thursday), should not be put on hold.
“The deceased body can always be exhumed, whenever there is a need there is need to carry out an examination on the body because in this part of the word, it will look most unfair that the deceased’s burial is being suspended,” Ayeye said.
Bamjoko had asked that the burial right of the deceased should be suspended so that they can also carry out an autopsy on the body as he fears that the autopsy result might be tampered with.
Consequently, Ayeye adjourned the case till June 25 for mention.
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