An Igbosere High Court in Lagos has sentenced a 23-year-old Béninoise housekeeper, Christian Yavine, to death by hanging for the murder of Mariam Abiola, 78.
Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye convicted Yavine on Monday after three years of trial.
Yavine had denied killing his employer’s mother.
Justice Ipaye dismissed Yavine’s claim that he was 14 years old at the time of the offence.
The judge said evidence had shown that Yavine’s claim was inaccurate as the prosecution proved that he was seeking admission to a university at the time of the murder.
Ipaye also said that a birth certificate obtained by Lagos State Government from Yavine’s alleged birth hospital in Benin Republic showed that he was born in 1996.
Yavine was arraigned on April 15, 2016 by Lagos State Government.
Prosecution counsel, Akin George, had said that the incident took place on July 1, 2014 at Block 74, Flat 4, Ipaja Low Cost Housing Estate, Pen Cinema, Lagos.
Mr George said the housekeeper almost cut off Abiola’s head with a knife while she was asleep in her daughter’s home.
Abiola was the mother of Ajoke Ashiwonyi, Yavine’s employer, who was away at a church vigil.
The housekeeper had claimed that the police wrongfully charged him for the offence because he failed to pay a N200, 000 bribe.
Yavine testified through an interpreter that on June 30, 2014, his employer locked him and the deceased in separate rooms before leaving for the vigil.
