A 27-year-old commercial sex worker and single mother, Nkechi Okafor,
has been sentenced to six years imprisonment by Justice Lateefat Okunnu
of the Ikeja High court.
Ms Okafor, an Imo state indigene and primary school teacher, was
sentenced today after having faced trial on the 16th of March, 2012 for
stabbing one of her clients, Abiodun Sarumi, leading to his untimely
death. She was accused of murdering one Mr. Abiodun Sarumi on the 2nd
March, 2010 by 11pm, at Nice Time Hotel, Old Ipaja Road, Lagos. She was
said to have stabbed her victim with a bottle on his shoulder.
After the judge pronounced the judgment, Ms Okafor, allegedly burst
into tears and pleaded with the court to have mercy on her. Her defence
counsel, Mrs A. Onabolu, also pleaded on her behalf, “Nkechi is a young
woman in her prime age and a first offender”
Nkechi tearfully explained that she killed the victim in
self-defense. She further disclosed that she was forced into
prostitution by one of her relatives after she dropped out of primary
school.
“I have not always been a prostitute, when I was in the village in
Imo State, I had a baby girl and she is 3 years old. Things were not
easy for us. We are nine in my family and I am the third child. When
this aunty called Evelyn came to the village last year, she said she
will take me to Lagos to work in a restaurant and that was how she
forced me into prostitution.”
“She was the one who paid for the rooms we stayed and after we have
slept with the customers, every night, she comes to collect the money.
We charged the customers N1000 per night and we can
make up to N6000 in a day. I was even tired of the prostitution and I
was planning to go back home when this incident happened. I feel pain
and pity about Abbey’s death. God knows that I did not intend to kill.”
She had pleaded.