Lawyer who ‘cut off husband’s genitals’ suspected him of cheating

An Igbosere High Court in Lagos on Wednesday heard that a lawyer, Mrs Udeme Otike-Odibi, who allegedly stabbed her husband, Symphorosa Otike-Odibi, to death and cut off his penis, believed he was cheating on her.

A witness, Chijioke Akukuma, told Justice Adedayo Akintoye that Otike-Odibi complained to him that Symphorosa kept pornographic material on his phone and that he was having affairs.

Akukuma, the husband of Symphorosa’s sister, testified as the sixth prosecution witness for the Lagos State Government.

His testimony followed the June 13 arraignment of Otike-Odibi, 48, on a two-count charge of murder and misconduct with regard to a corpse.

The government accused the defendant of stabbing Symphorosa, also a lawyer, to death and mutilating his corpse by cutting off his genitals, on May 3, at their Diamond Estate, Sangotedo, Lekki, Lagos home.

At the resumption of proceedings on Wednesday, Akukuma, an engineer, was led as examination-in-chief by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Titilayo Shitta-Bey.

He testified that the defendant visited him at home a week earlier to complain about the pornographic pictures that her husband’s friends were allegedly sending him on WhatsApp and that he was seeing other women.

He testified that she also lamented about Symphorosa’s refusal to back her decision to start a business.

The witness said when he spoke to the deceased, he said he tried to make the marriage work, but that he was no longer interested in the marriage. Akukuma stated that the deceased said one thing that “made him mad” was that his wife sent a message to one of his friend’s wives about his alleged affairs, and that “was extremely bad.”

The witness said he counselled the couple to go on a vacation to the United Kingdom.

A night before Symphorosa’s murder, at about 11pm, the witness said he chatted with the defendant on Whatsapp about the troubled marriage.

“She did not respond to my WhatsApp messages until 12:09 a.m, when she replied ‘May God forgive you.’ I sent a message back that ‘Should I call you?’ Her response was ‘No, just pray for us.’ So I went back to sleep because I had a flight to catch early in the morning.”

He said the next day, he aborted his trip when he got a call from his wife, Dr Awunli Akukuma, that her brother was dead.

He said: “On May 3, 2018, I was at the Airport, when I was called by my wife that her elder brother Symphorosa had been killed by his wife”.

Justice Akintoye adjourned further hearing till November 20.