Killer-cook bags life in jail for killing Credit Switch boss, Badamosi

A Beninoise, Sunday Anani, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by an Igbosere High Court, Lagos, for killing his employer, Opeyemi Badamosi, the Chief Executive Officer of Credit Switch Limited.

Anani committed the crime three days after he resumed duties at Badamosi’s Parkview Estate residence.

The trial judge, Justice Mobolanle Okikiolu-Ighile, convicted Anani following his plea of guilty to a one-count charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Anani, 22, was initially charged by the Lagos State Government on two counts of murder and armed robbery but pleaded not guilty. He, however, entered a plea bargain agreement for a lesser charge, pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter with the help of his counsel, Mrs Aderenra Adeyemi, the Director of the Office Public Defender

According to him, he stabbed Chief Bademosi to death in his Ikoyi, Lagos, home, while trying to rob him, confirming that he was the person caught on closed-circuit television camera fleeing the scene of the crime.

Asked if she has any plea for leniency, Anani’s counsel, Adeyemi said: “The defendant is a young man and he is remorseful about what he has done. He is a first-time offender, there is no evidence that he committed any crime before this.

Read also: 28-yr-old graduate stabs brother to death in Awka

“Our humble application is to urge your lordship to grant a sentence of years certain.

“However, if my lordship is mindful of upholding what we have agreed in the plea bargain, we will accept the sentence therein.”

This was opposed by the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey.

Shitta-Bey said: “We urge this court to grant the maximum sentence for the offence of voluntary manslaughter as charged.”

According to her, there were some “special aggravating circumstances” surrounding the case, such as breach of trust.

“The defendant was employed into the home of his boss, entrusted with a high level of responsibilities as a cook.

“Barely three days after resumption of duty, the defendant cut short the life of a man that gave him a new lease of life, depriving him the privilege of enjoying life with his wife and children.

“Judicial notice must be taken of the fact that this act of violence by domestic employees against their employers is becoming rampant.

“The sentence must reflect that this conduct is unacceptable to our society; we must send the message to others of like minds.”

In her judgement, Justice Okikiolu-Ighile said: “it is annoying that a young man like this will involve himself in this kind of crime. What did he hope to achieve in life involving himself in this kind of crime, I ask?

“It is very painful that a young man, who the family of Bademosi welcomed in their home as a cook, ended up causing so much havoc and endless pain.

“It is even more painful that the defendant had no motive of working but came into the house with a criminal intention to steal, kill and to destroy.

“The defendant admitted, ‘I killed him.’ This was an innocent and unsuspecting family.

“Sunday Adefonou Anani is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment.

“The term of imprisonment shall commence from today, June 25, 2019.”

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