Lagos — A Yaba Magis-trates’ Court, yesterday, said a dry cleaner, 35-year-old Aderoju Ojelabi, who allegedly killed her day-old baby, had a case to answer in court.
At the resumed hearing of the case, the Magistrate, Mrs S.K. Matepo, said: “A murder case has been established against the accused and consequently, her case will be transferred to a court of superior record.”
She said that advice from the state Directorate of Public Prosecutions, DPP, had established a prima facie case of unlawful killing against the accused.
Consequently, Matepo ordered that the case file be transferred to the Lagos High Court fortrial.
Ojelabi was first arraigned on December 10, 2012, and charged with the wilful abandonment and murder of her child.
At her arraignment, the court failed to take the plea of the accused, but ordered that she be remanded in prison custody pending legaladvice from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The prosecutor, Police Inspector Chris Takim, had told the court that the accused, who resides at 1, Honourable St., Odo-Ishuti Road, Egan, a Lagos suburb, committed the offence on November 24, 2012.
He said the accused had claimed that her baby’s father had abandoned her while she was pregnant. Takim said after delivery of thebaby on November 23, 2012, Ojelabi decided to get rid of it.
The prosecutor said the accused who gave birth at home, put the baby in a sack and proceeded to dump the child in a swamp at the end of Morica Salam Street, Egan.
He said the dead baby was later discovered by one Mrs Esther Adegbola, who had gone to the area to dispose off some garbage.
Takim had said the offence committed contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The section provides that if found guilty, she could face the death penalty.
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