Nigerian Man Bags Life Sentence For South African Artiste’s Murder

A Nigerian man, Onyeghani Dumkele, who allegedly murdered an up-and-coming artiste, Shaun Douglas Chabalala, 23, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

MSN reports that the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court also sentenced 37-year-old Dumkele to an additional 15 years imprisonment for aggravated robbery, plus a 12-month suspended sentence on the condition that he be deported to his native country after he completes his concurrent sentence for murder and aggravated robbery.

The South African Police Service spokesperson, Captain Daniel Mavimbela, said Chabalala and his friend, Given Mzamane, were lured to the Tambotie block of flats in Sunnyside, east of Pretoria, in May 2018 through a fake advertisement for a luxury camera.

He said the boys had gone there to buy the camera, and they were carrying a cash amount of R14 000 on them, only to be led into an ambush inside an apartment where Dumkele lived on the seventh floor.

Mavimbela said, “Upon entering the apartment, the victims were attacked by a group of men, and Chabalala succumbed to injuries and was declared dead on the scene.”

He added, “Mzamane testified that he forced his way out of the door and managed to escape. However, it was not before he had witnessed two men, who had participated in the robbery and attack on himself and Chabalala, lift Chabalala and throw him out of the window from the same apartment.”