Man To Die By Hanging For Armed Robbery In Akwa Ibom

Justice has been served on a 30-year-old criminal, Nse James Asuquo, as he has been sentenced to death by hanging for an armed robbery attack carried out with his gang in February 2021.

They carried out the attack in the early hours of February 4, 2021, at Nung Atai Street, off Obio Imo Street, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

Asuquo, a native of Ituk Mbang in Uruan local government area, was at the weekend, sentenced to death by the State High Court sitting in Uyo, presided over by Hon Justice Gabriel Ette.

He was arraigned on an eight-count charge bothering on conspiracy to rob and armed robbery under the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap R11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that the charges stemmed from a 1am invasion of a residential compound at 36, Nung Atai Street, Uyo, where residents were dispossessed of valuables including mobile phones and television sets.

Trial commenced on July 13, 2022, when the prosecution called two witnesses and tendered several exhibits, with the first prosecution witness (PW1), Wisdom Williams, a teacher and resident of the compound, giving an eyewitness account of the incident.

Williams testified that at about 1:32am, he heard unusual noises and saw a large group of young men storm into the compound.

“They were breaking into the rooms one after the other. When they broke into my room through the kitchen, they were four in number. They ordered me to lie down and shone torchlight in my face,” he recalled.

Williams further stated that the assailants beat him with a machete and demanded N100,000, and when he denied having such money, they searched his room and carted away his Infinix Hot Note X551 phone, another Tecno phone and a GoTV remote.

The Investigating Police Officer (IPO), (PW2), tendered a machete allegedly used in the operation and an extra-judicial statement said to have been made by the defendant.

In sentencing the defendant, Hon Justice Ette delivered a strongly worded remark, reminding criminal elements that, “People who abandon the comfort of their beds at night to invade the privacy of others and harm them, should not forget that whoever murders sleep has inadvertently denied himself the comfort of sleep too.”

The court, therefore, sentenced Asuquo to seven years imprisonment without an option of fine on Count 1 (conspiracy); and death by hanging on Count 4 (armed robbery).

Pronouncing the death sentence, the judge ordered that he “be hanged by the neck until he is dead. Mmay the Lord, whose discretion it is, have mercy on your soul.”