Court Sentences 2 Vigilantes To Death By Hanging For Murder

An Abia High Court sitting in Ukwa has sentenced two members of Abia Vigilance Group (Bakassi), Ugochukwu Amaugo and Udo Ogba Oka to death by hanging for murder.

The convicts had been standing trial for 11 years over the death of two youths, Temple Nwakanma and Martins Azih, who they arrested around Osisioma Junction, in the outskirts of Aba.

Anaugu and Oka were found guilty and convicted by Justice Chibuzo Ahuchaogu for failing to prove beyond reasonable doubts what happened to, or the whereabouts of Nwakanma and Azih.

During the trial, the convicts, now in their middle ages had claimed that they arrested the youths in 2013 for being in possession of firearms, cartridges, and knives.

The convicts said while they were taking them to their headquarters in Umuahia, the state capital when they met some soldiers at Abia Tower, who after interrogating the youths took them into their custody.

They maintained not knowing the names of the soldiers as well as having not given any handover note in respect of the youths by the soldiers.

However, in its defence, the Nigerian Army denied any knowledge of the incident even as the fate of the youths still remain unknown.