Man stabs lover to death for refusing to make him ‘next-of-kin’

A wicked man has stabbed his lover to death because she refused to make him the next of kin and beneficiary of her wealth.

 

A female staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Sophia Phillips Horsefall, has been murdered and buried in a shallow grave by her boyfriend because she refused to make him her next-of-kin in her documents.

Vanguard reports that the deceased who is from the popular Horsefall family in Rivers State, was stabbed to death by the boyfriend, Martin Sotonye and two of his friends, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochukwu, on November 8, 2016, after she also refused to give him the sum of N1 million he had demanded from her.

The accused were arraigned at a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the state capital by the Department of State Services (DSS.

During the trial, counsel to the DSS, Mr. C. S. Eze, told the court that the first defendant, Sotonye, had lured the deceased with whom they had a 13-year-old daughter, to the house of the second defendant, Oluche, where he allegedly stabbed her to death.

Eze claimed the first and second defendants later buried the deceased in a shallow grave, noting that they invited the third defendant, Ugochukwu, a spiritualist, to perform some rituals to cover their tracks.

The counsel also added that the accused were brought before the court on a three-count charge which included:

‘Stabbing to death with a jack knife and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code Law, Laws of Rivers State 1999.'

An older brother of the deceased, Amatu Phillips while speaking to newsmen, alleged that his sister was murdered by the boyfriend of 13 years because of her wealth. 

He claimed she had some money in her account and confided in the boyfriend who later kept on pestering her for financial support.

According to Phillips, after the sister had allegedly given him money several times, he came again demanding for N1 million which she refused. 

He alleged that the boyfriend later lured her to his friend’s house, offered her a fruit juice drink which, unknown to the sister, was drugged.

He alleged that when the boyfriend noticed that she was dizzy from the effect of the drug, he stabbed her in the neck, demanding her ATM card and password. 

He claimed the boyfriend had before that day persuaded his sister to change the name of her next of kin on her bank details to his name.

The Chief Magistrate, F. Alikor, refused to take the plea of the accused and referred the case file to the state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), saying her court did not have jurisdiction to entertain matters over the murder which was the second charge.  

She, however, remanded the accused in prison custody and adjourned the matter indefinitely.