ALLEGED MURDER: Relief for former wrestling champion Uti as court grants him bail, case adjourns to Nov, 15

For allegedly disrespecting corpse of wife, by allowing it to decompose inside their residence, a onetime wrestling champion, John Uti, popularly known as Power Uti, was on Tuesday arraigned before an Ebute-Meta Magistrate’s Court.

Uti, 55, was said to have locked up wife’s corpse at their residence on Oremeji Street, in the Ilupeju area of Lagos State.

Consequently, he was arraigned on a two count charge of murder and disrespect for a corpse. The police said the act was punishable under sections 165 and 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.

The charges which the magistrate, Mrs. Bola Folarin-Williams, read to Uti stated in part, “That you, John Uti, on October 10, 2017, at about 10am on Oremeji Street, Ilupeju, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did disrespect the corpse of one Toyin Uti, by abandoning it to decompose in the room, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 165 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.”

Police prosecutor, Sergeant Jimah Iseghede, at the court sitting brought an application praying that the defendant be remanded and argued that the case should be transferred to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for legal advice.

But the defence lawyer opposed the application and asked the court to dismiss claims of murder in the case because the applicant has no evidence to prove the deceased wife was murdered by the husband.

Subsequently, the magistrate called the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) from the Homicide Section, State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, to give the facts of the matter.

In his response, the IPO explained that the case was transferred to the SCIID from the Ilupeju Police Division. He further said that the family of the deceased was the complainant in the case.

“On October 9, 2017, the wife of John Uti, one Toyin Uti, complained of headache and on October 10, she died. She was certified dead by a doctor at the Gbagada General Hospital.

“The husband took the corpse back home and left for Canaanland to see his pastor. He came back the following day and the corpse was eventually taken to the Isolo General Hospital mortuary. However, the corpse had started decomposing. The deceased family members alleged that he killed their sister,” the IPO told the court.

Sequel to this, the magistrate said that nothing in the statements of the defendant and witnesses suggested that the defendant killed his 38-year-old wife.

At this point, the IPO then disclosed that an autopsy report on the death proved that the deceased died from acute cardiac failure and hypertensive heart disease.

Mrs. Folarin-Williams then quashed the remand application by the prosecutor and admitted Uti to bail in the sum of N500,000 with two responsible sureties in like sum, who are his blood relations.

The magistrate then adjourned the matter till November 15.

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