A carpenter has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a young woman.
Awele Ukpor, 54, is suspected of murdering Joy Onyekachi, 24, whom he met at a restaurant in Lagos State’s Ajangbadi district on November 19, 2023.
According to evidence presented in court on Monday, Dec. 18, the carpenter met Onyekachi in a pub in the vicinity and struck up a conversation with him.
During their talk, Onyekachi mentioned that she had lost her job, and Ukpor offered to drive her home and then pay her N60,000 to start something.
However, after spending the night with her, he offered her N20,000, which was not agreed upon initially, resulting in a fight.
He allegedly whacked her in the head with an iron basin when she was arguing with him, and she died as a result.
Ukpor later enlisted the assistance of a junk collector, who assisted him in burying her in a shallow grave beside an abandoned bakery.
Ukpor was charged with murder and hauled before Magistrate Linda Balogun in a Magistrate’s Court in Yaba, Lagos State.
Chekwube Okeh, the police prosecutor, asked the court to remand the defendant to the correctional institution pending the conclusion of legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
The charge read: “That you, Awele Ukpor, November 19, 2023, at Jelli Close, Ajangbadi, Lagos in the Lagos Magisterial District, did unlawfully kill the deceased, Joy Onyekachi, aged 24 years, by hitting an iron basin on her head and thereafter secretly buried the corpse in a shallow grave and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 222 and punishable under Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.”
The defendant did not enter a plea.
The magistrate granted the prosecutor’s plea and remanded the defendant to the Ikoyi Correctional Centre for legal advice from the DPP.
Magistrate Balogun postponed the case until January 24, 2023, to await DPP advice.
