Matilda Omonaiye/
A prosecution witness has told a Lagos High Court in Igbosere how the bodies of an 89-year-old grandmother and her daughter allegedly killed by their newly employed house help, were found.
Dahiru Musa, a security guard, told the court that the bodies of Mrs Adejoke John and Oreoluwa were discovered after the house-help, Joseph Ogbu was caught trying to flee the scene of the crime in the car of his deceased employers.
Ogbu was represented in court Tuesday by a counsel, Monday Ubani.
While being led in evidence by the Lagos Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyo Onigbanjo (SAN), before Justice Modupe Nicole-Clay, Musa said he knew Ogbu from the day the house help resumed duty at Mrs Ajoke John’s house on Ogunlana Drive, Surulere.
“I was the one Mama called to show him (Ogbu) where to be buying things. Before he assumed duties, I was the one buying things for Mama,” he said.
Musa, who was the first prosecuting witness in the matter, told the court that on the night of his second day with Mama, he saw the defendant driving Mama’s car out of her house at about 2 a.m.
“I approached him and asked why he was driving the deceased’s car at that hour of the day. He said Mama sent him on an errand somewhere,” he said.
The witness who claimed to have known Mama since 1984, said he became suspicious and challenged Ogbu further that Mama could not have sent him out on an errand at that hour.
He added, “I held him tight, took the car’s key from him and led him back to Mama’s house.
“We climbed the steps to the upper floor and entered the parlour. The whole place was in a mess. All the drawers were pulled out and their contents scattered on the floor. He had destroyed a lot of things. I shouted, ‘Mama, Mama’ but nobody answered.
“I asked him to show me where Mama was and he took me to her room.
“I saw Mama in her room on the floor. She was dead.”
When asked how many people reside in Mama’s apartment, Musa said two: ”Mama and her daughter, and she had been stabbed and was also dead.
“When I saw the dead bodies, I turned him (defendant) round and tied his hands behind his back and his legs until daybreak.”
He said that he handed Ogbu over to the Police when they came to the crime scene in the morning.
Musa also noted that the defendant damaged Mama’s car when he was driving it out of the house.
Asked what he saw in the car, Musa said when the defendant’s bag was opened, it contained his clothes, four phones, four ATM cards and one big flat television in the boot of the car.
He said the flat screen television was the one hung on the wall in the deceased sitting room.
At this stage, the trial judge, Justice Nicole-Clay, insisted on having an official interpreter “in the interest of justice and for justice to be served”.
Counsel agreed with the judge on the need for an interpreter.
Justice Nicole-Clay adjourned the case till January 23, 2020, for the continuation of trial.
The defendant, Joseph Ogbu, is facing a three-count charge of murder and stealing brought against him by the state.
The Prosecution counsel, Oshoala, had earlier informed the court that the defendant committed the alleged offence on June 19.
He said the incident took place at 4, Ogunlana Drive, in Surulere area of Lagos, at about 9: 30pm.
Oshoala said that the defendant allegedly killed one Adejoke John, by strangulating her to death.
He added that Ogbu also killed Oreoluwa John, by stabbing her to death.
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