How chef allegedly murdered my sister in Lagos hotel — Brother

A defence witness, Ige Afolabi, on Tuesday narrated before an Ikeja Special Offences Court how his younger sister, Feyisayo Obot (nee Afolabi), was allegedly murdered by a chef in a hotel in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Afolabi was testifying at the commencement of the trial of Joshua Usulor, a 21-year-old chef accused of killing Obot at the Citiheights Hotel located at Opebi Link Road, Ikeja.
Led in evidence by lead state counsel, Olakunle Ligali, Afolabi described himself as the eldest brother to the deceased – a mother of two.
The witness told the court that Obot, a lawyer, who worked with an Abuja-based Non-Governmental Organisation, Save the Children, had in January 2019 come to Lagos for few days to write a project management examination.
Afolabi said on Janaury 29, 2019, he sensed that something was amiss when he received panic phone calls from his wife that Anderson Obot, his brother-in-law, had been unsuccessfully trying to reach his wife who was due to return to Abuja on that day.
He said: “He (brother-in-law) also called me and told me that he was at the airport and that he had been trying to reach his wife, but her phone was switched off.
“I reassured him and told him that she was probably airborne.
“He called about three minutes later and said he got a message from her work colleagues, stating that she was sick and unconscious in her hotel room.
“I asked for the name of the hotel and he told me that it was Citiheights Hotel at Opebi Link Road, Ikeja.”
Afolabi said he immediately drove to the hotel, and while on his way, he received another phone call from his brother-in-law to the effect that an ambulance was about to be contacted to go to the hotel.
He said on arrival at the hotel, he walked into the reception area, and when he saw the faces of individuals gathered there, he knew something went wrong.
He said: “My sister had lodged in room 501, which was on the fifth floor; when we got into her room, she was on the floor wrapped in a duvet and, of course, there was blood around her.
“The hotel management contacted the Ikeja Division of the Nigeria Police, and one Inspector Elijah came to the hotel.
“It was when he came that the duvet was removed.
“She was lying face down in a pool of blood.
“When she was about to be lifted and put in a body bag, the men carrying her observed that her throat was slit.
“We went to a hospital and she was confirmed dead on arrival and taken to the morgue, the hotel paid some of the bills.”
Afolabi told the court that the Divisional Police Officer in Ikeja visited the crime scene at the hotel and also visited the Closed-Circuit Television camera room of the hotel to watch some CCTV footage of that day.
He said it was realised that the deceased was murdered by Usulor who was another guest at the hotel.
He said: “My sister came into the hotel on January 23, 2019. The defendant arrived a few hours after she arrived.
“He stayed on the third floor, in room 311, while she was on the fifth floor, in room 501.
“From the CCTV footage, at about 7:29am on January 26, 2019, which was the day she was to depart for Abuja, Usulor came upstairs to the fifth floor.
“While on the fifth floor, he heard a noise of someone approaching and he hid; he came out from hiding, went to my sister’s room and knocked twice and the door opened.
“He was in her room for less than nine minutes and he ran out.”
Afolabi told the court that he met one Alabi, the Chairman of the hotel, who had asked if his sister had any known enemies, which he denied.
“The chairman said he was surprised because after he viewed the CCTV, he noticed that the person who killed her is a guest and he had come after she checked-in,” he said.