The Lagos state government has opened its case against the alleged killer of 21-year old Augusta Onuwabhagbe, who was murdered in July 2023.
Benjamin Nnayereugo aka Killaboi, who fled the country and later released a video purportedly confessing to the crime had pleaded not guilty to the alleged offences, when he was arraigned in November, 2025.
He is charged with two counts of the murder and for indecently interfering with the corpse by allegedly cutting her stomach open and removing her body parts.
Both offences are said to be contrary to Sections 165 and 222 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
The trial opens, ten months after his extradition to Nigeria, following two years of being on the run, traversing multiple regions before he was finally captured in Doha, Qatar.
On Wednesday, the prosecution led by the director of Public prosecutions, Babajide Martins, presented the first witness, for the State before Justice Ibironke Harrison sitting at the State High Court, Igbosere.
Reginald Okonye, told the court that he took his sister, Cordelia Okonye, who’s the mother of the deceased to the house of the defendant who was the late Augusta’s boyfriend on July 15, 2023.
According to him, the deceased’s mother had been unable to reach her daughter on phone, though they were chatting on Whatsapp, he says it was Augusta’s friend, Oyindamola who led them to the defendants residence located within Oral Estate, Ikota, Ajah.
They couldn’t immediately gain access to the semi detached duplex, despite sighting her car parked inside the compound and calling her name with no response.
He adds that upon filing a case at the nearby police station, they returned to the apartment with officers who had gotten a search warrant and that with a ladder they rented, he climbed upstairs to enter the building.
Upon sighting his niece, lying down lifeless, looking bloated and in a pool of blood, he says the police took over, to take the corpse to the mortuary while he took his sister away.
The witness adds that a search of the defendant’s apartment reveals several personal items of the deceased in it.
He was shown pictures of the house and the late Augusta at the time she was found, which he identified.
The lead defence counsel, Marcel Oru (SAN) said he would defer his objections over the admissibility of the exhibits till later.
After a brief cross examination, the witness was discharged.
Further hearing is fixed till Thursday, March 5.
