By Lovina Anthony Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, on Friday, sentenced an 82-year-old Village Head of Efen Ibom, Ika Loca...
By Lovina Anthony
Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, on Friday,
sentenced an 82-year-old Village Head of Efen Ibom, Ika Local Government Area
of the State, Chief Essien Matthew Odiong to death by hanging for murder.
The convict, who is married to 12 wives with 60 children,
was standing trial on a four count charge of conspiracy, directing unlawful
trial by ordeal, stealing of the motorcycle and murder of the owner, a member
of his community, Udoma Akpan Udo Ubom.
In a judgment, the Court presided over by Justice Edem
Akpan, found the accused guilty of murder of Udoma Akpan Udo Ubom by injecting
some chemical substance on him, leading to his death on 26th April, 2017.
The late Ubom was accused by his brothers of being a wizard
and was reported to the Village Head, who brought him before the Efen Clan
Council, where the deceased was given an oath to swear that he was not a
wizard.
The Court held that “having sensed the consequences of his
criminal activity, the monarch escaped from the Village in 2017 and returned in
2019, when he was arrested by the Police.”
Justice Akpan also held that since “the accused had
voluntarily admitted that he sat at Efen Clan Council with five other village
heads and members of the Clan Council to try the deceased on the allegation of
witchcraft, the law has relieved the prosecution of the burden to prove the
offense of conspiracy.”
According to the court, “the admission of the process of
trial and the decision of Efen Clan Council to administer oath on the deceased
has logically brought to the conclusion that a plastic bath on the head of the
late Udoma Akpan Udo Ubom and injecting some chemical substance through a
syringe into his buttocks by the village head, caused the death of the
deceased.”
Justice Akpan sentenced the Village Head to death by hanging
for murder, seven years imprisonment with hard labour for directing unlawful
trial by ordeal and three years imprisonment for conspiracy with others now at
large.
Before he was sentenced, the convicted Village Head,
popularly known as “Kill and Bury” pleaded for leniency, asking the court to
show him mercy.
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