A Niger State High Court sitting in Minna has sentenced a teenage housemaid, Joy Afekafe, to death for her role in the brutal murder of Dr. (Mrs.) Funmilayo Sherifat Adefolalu, a senior lecturer at the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, Justice Mohammed Adishetu Mohammed of High Court No. 4 found the defendant guilty of two counts: armed robbery and culpable homicide, contrary to Sections 298 and 221 of the Penal Code.
According to court proceedings, the incident occurred on October 28, 2023, at the victim’s residence in the Gbaiko area of Minna. Afekafe had been employed as a domestic worker in Dr. Adefolalu’s household earlier that same month, having been introduced by Pastor Ojo Peters of the Voice of Mercy Church, a place of worship both the victim and the maid’s mother attended.
However, during her brief stay, Afekafe reportedly began stealing household items and foreign currency. When the lecturer discovered the theft and dismissed her, Afekafe conspired with two male friends, identified as “DJ Wallex” and “DJ Smart” (both currently at large), to carry out the attack.
In her confession to detectives from the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), the teenager admitted that the group stormed the lecturer’s home, stabbed her multiple times with knives, and struck her fatally with a wooden stool when she attempted to resist.
The assailants reportedly fled the scene with two mobile phones, a laptop, and an undisclosed amount of foreign currency.
In a judgment that lasted over two hours, Justice Mohammed declared that the prosecution had presented compelling evidence and proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“On the whole and for all the reasons stated in this judgment, I hold that the prosecution was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Dr. (Mrs.) Funmilayo Sherifat Adefolalu is dead,” he stated.
He further ruled that “the death of Dr. Adefolalu was caused by the convict with her accomplices, now at large, when they used knives to stab her severally and eventually hit her with a wooden stool with the intent to kill her.”
With the conviction, Joy Afekafe now faces the death penalty, while security agencies continue the search for her co-conspirators.
