Lagos Police Arraign Man For Killing Wife, Others

The Lagos State Government has charged Nictsen, 53, with killing his wife, Zainas, an up-coming musician also known as Alizee, and her three-year old daughter, Petra.
They were found dead at their Bella Vista Apartment on Banana Island, Ikoyi on April 5.
The case has attracted local and international interest with Danish journalists from TV2 Denmark in court to cover the trial, especially given the nature and circumstances of the deaths.
At the hearing of 28, 29,30 November and 19 December 2018, the prosecution was led by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Mrs Titilayo Shitta-Bey and the Defence was by a former Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr Olasupo Shashore (SAN).
The prosecution called three witnesses, Prof John Obafunwa testified on behalf of the state last 28 November.
Obafunwa, an anatomy and forensic pathologist, who was the Chief medical examiner for Lagos State from 2007 to 2015, conducted the post mortem examination on Zainab and Petra.
He gave evidence in-Chief and was cross examined by the defendant’s lead counsel, Shasore on 29 November 2018.
In his expert evidence Obafunwa concluded that death in the case of Zainab Nielsen resulted from asphyxia with a closed cranio-cerebral injury.
He arrived at this conclusion based on his findings in the course of post morten examination.
He was of the opinion that the asphyxia was caused by smottering of the victim.
With respect to Petra, Obafunwa was of the opinion that the deceased died as a result of asphyxia with severe brain swelling due to smothering.
He disclosed that a toxicology report on Petra revealed that there was no evidence of poisoning in her system. This appear contrary to earlier reports that suggested that Petra Nielson had been poisoned by her father.
Obafunwa pointed out some irregularity in the police handling of the matter, in that he way only called to examine the deceased persons on 10 April 2018, five days after the bodies were found.
He stated that it would have been proper to have called the forensic expert immediately the deaths were discovered.
He observed that certain changes may have accurved between the time the bodies were discovered and the time he finally got access to the bodies. This is particularly crucial as Obafunwa was unable to account for the movement and handling of the bodies throughout the intervening period of time the bodies were finally examined.
When pressed on the manner in which the bodies were preserved, he admitted that the bodies were not preserved in accordance with good practice.