A Northampton Crown Court on Wednesday found 19-year-old Nigerian Melvin Lebaga-Idubor guilty of the murder of University of Northampton student Kwabena Osei-Poku, previously known as Alfred.
According to the police, on April 23, Lebaga-Idubor of Abbey Road arrived at a flat on campus with a second man, Ogechi Eke, aged 19, after telling Kwabena, also 19, that they wanted to buy a large quantity of cannabis from him.
But Lebaga-Idubor wanted to steal Kwabena’s drugs and warn him off dealing on ‘his’ patch, according to police.
An argument soon broke out between them with a witness hearing Lebaga-Idubor say, “This is my strip. What are you doing strutting drugs around here? Our line is here.”
Carrying Kwabena’s drugs, Lebaga-Idubor and Eke left the flat and both walked off campus.
Kwabena followed the pair in order to try and get his drugs back but an altercation ensued with Lebaga-Idubor wielding a knife and stabbing Kwabena twice.
At the end of the trial, Northamptonshire Police released a CCTV compilation showing some of the events leading up to the murder.
Following the killing, Lebaga-Idubor called on his girlfriend, Zhanae Forbes-Coleman, 19, of Kendal Gardens, Edmonton, and a friend, Antonio Huian, 18, of Royal Terrace, Northampton, in order to facilitate his escape.
Huian took him to hospital due to “injuries sustained during the altercation with Kwabena”, however, the pair left without Lebaga-Idubor receiving any treatment. The clothes he was wearing during the killing were then burnt in a metal bin in Huian’s back garden.
Forbes-Coleman then arrived with a set of new clothes and documents before arranging transport for Lebaga-Idubor to make a stop at his London address before boarding the Eurostar to Paris.
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Though he successfully arrived in the French capital and had plans to travel to Nigeria, he was later persuaded to come to the UK and was arrested.
Both Lebaga-Idubor and Eke were subsequently charged with murder and possession of an offensive weapon.
Huian and Forbes-Coleman were both charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Eke was found not guilty of the same charges and also cleared of a further count of manslaughter.
Forbes-Coleman was found not guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Huian had pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice at an earlier court hearing.
Lebaga-Idubor and Huian will be sentenced at the same court on a date to be confirmed in January.
