The Lagos Division of the Appeal Court has affirmed the death sentence passed on a Danish man, Peter Nielsen, for murdering his Nigerian wife, Zainab and his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Petra.
The appellate court, in its judgment, dismissed the appeal and held that the Lagos State government had proven the offence of murder against the foreigner beyond all reasonable doubts.
Justice Bolanle Okikiolu-Ighile, now retired on May 20, 2022, sentenced Nielsen to death after finding him guilty of a two-count charge of murder contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2015 against him.
The state had arraigned the condemned convict on June 13, 2018, for killing his Nigerian musician wife, Zainab, also known as Alizee and daughter on April 5, 2018, at about 3.45 am at their Banana Island residence in the Ikoyi area of Lagos.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Delivering the judgment, the Appeal court held that the corroborative evidence of DNA also strengthened the circumstantial evidence against the appellant.
“There was no proof of breaking into the apartment as suggested by the appellant.
“The missing exhibits as a result of the #EndSARS attack on the court do not affect the defence of the appellant as he had ample opportunities before the attack on the court. The findings of the forensic examiner corroborate the evidence of the children,” the upper court held
Justice Okikiolu-Ighile held that Nielsen smothered Zainab and Petra Nielsen to death.
She ruled, “He was the one who killed Zainab and Petra Nielsen. Zainab had already predicted her death when she told their driver that this man would kill her. She told her stepfather, Chris Madaki, when she went to Abuja that this man would kill her.”
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