Court remands teenager for allegedly setting girlfriend ablaze over cheating

An 18-year-old suspected online fraudster, Victor Oji, who allegedly set his girlfriend ablaze in Iba Town in Ojo Lagos, was remanded, on Tuesday, by an Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court.

The Magistrate, Mrs A. Kusanu, did not take the teenager’s plea but ordered that he should be kept at the Ikoyi Custodial Centre, Lagos, pending advice from the state director of public prosecutions.

Kusanu adjourned the case until February 19.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Jimah Iseghede, told the court that the defendant committed the murder on December 7, 2019, at 10.00 a.m at No. G549, Army Post Service Estate, Iba Town.

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He said that the defendant set ablaze his girlfriend, Tolani Mariam, 24, because he suspected she was cheating on him.

According to the prosecutor, the deceased told the defendant that she was going to visit her sister who was put to bed, adding that she returned to the boyfriend some days later.

Iseghede said that the defendant later saw, on the girlfriend’s phone, a video of her in a hotel taking hard drugs.

This, he said, triggered his action.

The prosecutor noted that murder contravenes Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, and attracts death penalty.

(NAN)