Togolese Cook Who Killed Credit Switch Boss Gets Life Imprisonment

Sunday Anani, the Togolese cook who murdered his employer, the Chief Executive Officer of Credit Switch Ltd., Opeyemi Bademosi, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Justice Mobolanle Okikiolu-Ighile of the Igbosere High Court in Lagos State convicted Anani following his plea of guilty to a one-count charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Anani, 22, who was charged by the Lagos State Government on two counts of murder and armed robbery, confessed that he stabbed Chief Bademosi to death in his Ikoyi, Lagos, home, while trying to rob him.

Before sentencing the defendant, the court asked his counsel, if he had an allocutus – plea for leniency.

His counsel, Mrs. Aderenra Adeyemi, the Director of the Office Defender said: “The defendant is a young man and he is remorseful about what he has done. He is a first-time offender, there is no evidence that he committed any crime before this.

“Our humble application is to urge your lordship to grant a sentence of years certain.

“However, if my lordship is mindful of upholding what we have agreed in the plea bargain, we will accept the sentence therein.”

The Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, opposed the prayer.

Shitta-Bey said: “We urge this court to grant the maximum sentence for the offence of voluntary manslaughter as charged.

“The defendant was employed into the home of his boss, entrusted with a high level of responsibilities as a cook.

“Barely three days after resumption of duty, the defendant cut short the life of a man that gave him a new lease of life, depriving him the privilege of enjoying life with his wife and children.

“Judicial notice must be taken of the fact that this act of violence by domestic employees against their employers is becoming rampant.

“The sentence must reflect that this conduct is unacceptable to our society; we must send the message to others of like minds.”

After, the submissions the judge said: “it is annoying that a young man like this will involve himself in this kind of crime. What did he hope to achieve in life involving himself in this kind of crime, I ask?

“It is very painful that a young man, whom the family of Bademosi welcomed in their home as a cook, ended up causing so much havoc and endless pain.

“It is even more painful that the defendant had no motive of working but came into the house with a criminal intention to steal, kill and to destroy.

“The defendant admitted, ‘I killed him.’ This was an innocent and unsuspecting family.

“Sunday Adefonou Anani is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment.

“The term of imprisonment shall commence from today, June 25, 2019.”