LAGOS, Nigeria. (Voice Of Naija) A Congolese man has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years for the murder of his Nigerian roommate, a former postgraduate economics student who was lured into a communal corridor with WhatsApp messages before being stabbed in the chest and kicked repeatedly in the head as he lay dying on the floor.
Benjamin Katabana, 28, was convicted of murder at Norwich Crown Court following an 11-day trial, after a jury rejected his plea of guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter with diminished responsibility. The victim, Uchenna Okirie, known to friends as Uche, was 33 years old and a former student of the University of East Anglia’s economics programme. He had been living at Somerleyton House on Somerleyton Street in Norwich at the time of his death.
The attack occurred in the early hours of November 22, 2025. According to Norfolk Constabulary and BBC reporting confirmed by Punch Online on Tuesday, CCTV footage showed Katabana exchanging WhatsApp messages with Okirie to draw him into the building’s communal corridor. Okirie was on his phone when Katabana attacked him without warning. Katabana stabbed him once in the chest before repeatedly assaulting him and kicking him in the head as he lay on the floor.
Okirie was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 6 a.m. A post-mortem examination confirmed the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest. The murder weapon was never recovered.
What made the case particularly chilling was the premeditation implied by the WhatsApp lure. Katabana did not encounter Okirie by chance; he sent him messages specifically to draw him to a location where the attack could
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According to the BBC, after killing Okirie, Katabana activated the building’s fire alarm, alerting other residents to the scene, and walked calmly through the streets of Norwich to Bethel Street Police Station, where he surrendered to officers. “I have killed someone, I think,” he told police on arrival. During subsequent interviews, he declined to explain his actions, repeatedly responding “no comment” to investigators’ questions
At Norwich Crown Court, Judge Bate handed down the mandatory life sentence while setting the minimum tariff at 20 years before Katabana can be considered for release. The judge was pointed in his assessment of the defendant’s character. “You act impulsively and resolve issues through violence,” Judge Bate told Katabana. He noted two aggravating factors that the attack had taken place in the victim’s own home, and that Okirie had been entirely taken by surprise.
The court heard that Katabana had five previous convictions for seven separate offences, including an earlier incident in which he kicked a person in the head while they lay on the floor following an assault — a disturbing echo of the manner in which he killed Okirie.
His defence had argued his actions were the result of a mental health condition that diminished his responsibility, but the jury rejected that argument entirely after deliberating on the evidence.
Uchenna Okirie’s family were present in court for the verdict and sentencing. No details of a motive were established or publicly confirmed by either prosecutors or the defence, leaving the killing as inexplicable as it was brutal. Okirie, described by those who knew him as a quiet and hardworking young man who had come to the United Kingdom to build a future through education, was killed in the very building he called home by the man who shared it with him.
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The case drew widespread attention across Nigerian media immediately upon sentencing, given Okirie’s nationality and the circumstances of his death. Vanguard, Punch, Leadership, The Sun Nigeria and The Trumpet all reported the verdict on Tuesday, reflecting the depth of public interest in the welfare of Nigerians living in the United Kingdom diaspora.
For Nigeria, Uchenna Okirie’s death is a tragedy that resonates beyond its individual horror. The United Kingdom is home to over one million Nigerians, many of whom live and work in shared accommodation in cities outside London, including Norwich, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. The circumstances of Okirie’s murder, lured from his room by a trusted contact, killed in the shared space of his own building, are a reminder that the vulnerabilities facing Nigerians abroad are not confined to the journey of migration. They exist in the everyday spaces of the lives migrants build after arrival.
