The mother of Augusta Onuwaghagbe, who was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend, Benjamin Best Nnayereugo, popularly known as Killaboi, in 2023, told a Lagos state high court sitting at Igbosere about episodes of his violence on her daughter.
The witness says that, though the defendant already confessed to her that he murdered her mistakenly before absconding, she believes the murder was premeditated.
56-year-old Cordelia Onuwaghagbe, the second Prosecution witness, told Justice Ibironke Harrison that she accepted the defendant, also known as killaboi, and even took him as a son the moment her lovestruck daughter, Augusta, brought him home on Dec 8 2021.
The witness, Onuwaghagbe, recounted how in November 2022, while the couple was abroad, she learnt that he had beaten Augusta up and smashed her phone. She added that he then recorded her afterwards while she was abusing him for beating her and sent that video to her.
Upon their return, she said Killaboi apologised over the incident and promised never to beat her again. According to Augusta’s mom, her daughter said she would give him a second chance.
The witness recounted that on July 11 2023, the defendant called her to accuse the deceased of planning to cheat on him. Upon further enquiries, she said her daughter told her that he had taken over her Instagram account, while threatening to deal with her and that she wanted to end the relationship. She said she intervened, and he returned control of the account to her daughter.
A few days later, after calling her number without a response, which she found unusual, and heading to his house at Ajah, she found Augusta’s car parked with the key on the bonnet, and her daughter murdered.
Onuwaghagbe said, “On December 1, 2021, she sent me a message that she’s seeing a boy (Killaboi) and is in a romantic relationship with him. As a single mom, I asked her to bring him home. She brought him on Dec. 8, she said she loved him, and I accepted him as a son, too; he often visits. One time, they travelled abroad on Nov 22, 2022.
“I asked him where the money came from, he said it was from his earnings from Sporting bet, a betting platform, I asked him to rather invest it in his business but he said they were travelling through the cheaper economy class and that he had already sent some money to his Uncle, Okeke Charles, and seven days into their vacation, he beat her, smashed her phone, and pulled out her hair.”
The witness added, “When he beat her, he didn’t record the act. But when she flared up, abusing him, he recorded her and forwarded the video to me. When they returned, he came and begged me. He also knelt before my son and said he’s not a violent person, that what happened will be the last time he would ever beat her and that if it happens again, she should leave the relationship. Augusta also said she would give him a second chance”.
The mother further narrated that, ”On Saturday, 15 July, my son called me to ask when I last heard from her. I said I had chatted with her and called that morning, but she didn’t pick so he said I should visit her, because he is seeing her shadow and it’s making him sad.
”He said I should visit her boyfriend. I then opened up to him about what happened on July 11, when she said to me in a voice note later that night, after the Instagram issue had been resolved, that Benjamin was threatening to deal with her, swearing by his mother’s grave. My son then said we should go to his house to check for her there.
“He reached out to Augusta’s best friend, Oyindamola, to take us there, she said we can’t enter his estate except he sends us a code, so I called Augusta’s godmom, Mrs bankole whose husband is a military officer, to give us backup. So my brother, I, Oyindamola, Mrs Bankole and the soldier went to Oral estate.”
She disclosed that, “They allowed us in after we explained our mission. When we got there, his gate was locked her car was there. I thought they went out in his car. It’s illegal to break into the house, so we went to the Ajah police station, and they gave us a police officer who ordered the estate police to break into the house. We noticed all the windows were open upstairs, but the ACs were on. I noticed her car key was on the bonnet.
“The police said we should rent a ladder to get in since the doors were locked. My brother Reginald got a ladder, he climbed and shone his torch through the window. He didn’t tell me what he saw, but took me to his home, saying we would continue the search for Augusta the next day. The following day, I pressed him to allow us continue the search.
He said he wanted to eat, then Mrs Bankole came in, and he broke the news. In August that year, I reached out to Okeke Charles, his uncle. I chatted him up, saying no one from his family has shown up since his nephew killed my daughter, he said they too are still processing the pain.”
The mother, still in anguish over her loss, says she would later see his posts online where he confessed to stabbing Augusta to death mistakenly and said he would turn himself in. When he replied to her messages, he allegedly told her to be strong and that he would be there for her.
She says instead, Killaboi went into hiding and kept posting on social media about how toxic his relationship with Augusta had been.
She says that with the help of her lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, in her quest for justice, the defendant, who had been declared wanted by the Nigerian police, was arrested in Sierra Leone in November 2023.
But following a jailbreak where he was detained, he escaped and was eventually rearrested in Qatar and extradited to Nigeria in 2025.
Augusta, the second child of her single mother, was a 400-level student studying Medical Laboratory Sciences at the Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo state and was an online influencer who would have been 24 years old this year.
The witness also said, “On September 9, 2023, I buried her. On Sept. 14, I went online to my Instagram page, and I posted that Augusta has been dead for two months and that there is karma in African culture, that Augusta will be his last murder. He replied, posting that there is no karma but for wickedness to be paid with wickedness. He said he had been in a toxic relationship with my daughter.
“He also said she would have been alive if not for her mom, who was pimping her for rich men. After that, he locked up his Instagram account, and we never heard from him again. He was declared wanted and found in Sierra Leone and fled only to be rearrested in Qatar. He had entered Sierra Leone bearing the name of Samuel Kanu Princeton and with a fake Sierra Leonean passport, which he bought for 25,000 dollars. While being detained there, on November 26, there was a prison break.”
“Two weeks later, all the inmates were returned, only Killaboi was missing. The video of him leaving the prison is still with me. People online were always giving me information about his movements, until he settled in Qatar in 2024. With the aid of my Lawyer, Femi Falana, the lawyer to the poor, he was arrested on Jan. 15 2025, and found with multiple passports. In April 2025, he was extradited. Since then, I haven’t seen him until now,” the witness concluded.
After the hearing, the TVC News correspondent kept watch to capture the defendant, said to be a gambler, as he was escorted to the van of the Nigeria Correctional Service, but warders of the facility shielded him from the camera lens.
Among the counsel at the hearing were the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Babajide Martins, Marcel Oru SAN for the defendant, and Olakitan Bolu-Agbaje, holding a watching brief for the family.
Further hearing is fixed for April 22.
