A Lagos High Court sitting at Igbosere has admitted a written statement and video recording of the interrogation of Benjamin Nnayereugo, popularly known as “Killaboi,” who is standing trial for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, Augusta Onuwabhagbe.
The prosecution, led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Adedayo Haroun, called an investigating police officer, DSP Oderinde Gafar, to testify in the ongoing trial before Justice Ibironke Harrison.
Gafar told the court that Nnayereugo was arrested in Qatar following coordinated international efforts and later brought back to Nigeria for prosecution.
“The defendant was arrested in Qatar through collaboration with relevant security agencies and subsequently extradited to Nigeria to face trial,” he said.
He further told the court that the defendant voluntarily made a written statement during interrogation. “The defendant wrote his statement himself during the investigation,” he said.
The court also played a video recording of the statement-taking process in open court.
Earlier on April 22, 2026, the deceased’s mother, Mrs Cordelia Onuwabhagbe, had broken down in court as she described how she once regarded the defendant as a member of her family.
“Until this ugly incident that led to my daughter’s death, he was like a son to me. He came to my house, ate, rested, and slept, but I didn’t know he was a killer,” the 56-year-old mother said.
She told the court that the defendant attended her church twice and she thought he was a good person. “But it turned out to be a ploy to deceive me,” she said.
The mother recounted that the defendant had taken her daughter on trips to Mauritius in 2021 and Seychelles in 2022. She said the Seychelles trip was when the defendant first physically abused the deceased.
According to her, the defendant told her that a quarrel erupted after he caught her daughter scantily dressed and making videos of herself to be posted online.
“Benjamin told me that he broke her phone and then used his phone to do a video, which he sent to me. The cause of the fight was that she was videoing herself, so he snatched the phone and asked why she was videoing herself,” the witness said.
When defence counsel, Mr Marcel Oru (SAN), suggested that the disagreement occurred because the defendant did not like the videos posted online by the deceased which showed her “virtually naked,” the witness rejected the claim. She insisted that her daughter was in her bikinis for jobs.
Augusta’s mother also denied insinuations that her daughter was violent. She testified that even though the defendant sent her a stab wound allegedly inflicted on his hand by her daughter, she knew that the wound occurred as a result of him stabbing her repeatedly on the stomach when he killed her.
The court also heard that the defendant spent N10 million to organise a birthday party for the deceased and bought her expensive gifts, including designer bags, jewellery, and an iPhone. The witness said the defendant collected the iPhone back when he killed her daughter.
She further told the court that before her daughter’s death, the defendant never informed her that the relationship had ended or that the deceased was allegedly involved in prostitution or a “hookup.”
“It was after he killed her that he started saying that she had sex tapes with men,” Onuwabhagbe said.
When the defence counsel asked about a former boyfriend named Marvin, the witness said: “I know Marvin, but my daughter never told me she dated him, but Benjamin said she did.”
Asked whether she knew that Marvin left her daughter because he caught her in a hotel with another man while she claimed to be reading in school in Ibadan, the grieving mother replied: “I don’t know, but that’s no reason to kill my daughter.”
The prosecution informed the court that it had one remaining witness to close its case. Justice Harrison adjourned the matter to June 17 and 18, 2026, for continuation of the trial.
Killaboi was accused of killing the 21-year-old at his Ajah residence in Lagos on July 13, 2023, before fleeing Nigeria. He was arrested in Sierra Leone under a false identity but escaped during a prison break in November 2023. He later relocated to Doha, Qatar, in January 2025 and was arrested there in February 2025 before being extradited to Nigeria in April 2025. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and indecent interference with the victim’s corpse.
