Teenage girl bags life jail for lecturer’s murder in Minna

A 16-year-old girl, Joy Afekafe, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the killing of Associate Professor Adefolalu Funmilola Sherifat, a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State. Afekafe, who worked as a housemaid for the lecturer, was implicated in the killing that occurred in October […]

A 16-year-old girl, Joy Afekafe, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the killing of Associate Professor Adefolalu Funmilola Sherifat, a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State. Afekafe, who worked as a housemaid for the lecturer, was implicated in the killing that occurred in October 2023 when she was 14 years old.

The crime was committed in collaboration with a group of accomplices who are still at large.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Mohammed Adishetu Mohammed of the Minna High Court found the teenager guilty of her role in the killing and sentenced her to life imprisonment due to her age.

The court found that the prosecution successfully established that Afekafe and her friends (now at large) deliberately attacked the lecturer using knives and a wooden stool, which led to her death. The judge stated that the evidence presented during the trial convinced the court that the teenager not only participated in the killing but also in an act of armed robbery during the incident.

While Section 221 of the Penal Code of Niger State prescribes a death sentence for such an offense, the court took the convict’s age into account and imposed a life sentence, reflecting the severity of the crime and the circumstances under which it was committed.