The Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting at Oko Ita, in Ibiono Ibom local government area, at the weekend sentenced a mother of five, Mrs Idongesit Emmanuel Udo, and the secretary of Oko lta Village Council, Joseph Ekpo Atai, to life imprisonment for complicity in the murder of one Ikenna Emeka, and his co-accomplice, Nelson Akaniyene, whom she hired to kill her landlord, Emaeyak Kenneth James, over irreconcilable issues.
The presiding judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, held that the 47-year-old Mrs Udo, a native of Asang Enyong village, in Odukpani LGA of Cross River State, but married to an Ibiono Ibom man, is said to have hired and paid the late Emeka and Edet, N40,000, to carryout the act, but failed.
LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that upon failure to carry out the unlawful contract, and in a bid to recover her N40,000, the mother of five had reported to the second convict, Joseph Ekpo Atai, 61, as the secretary of the village council, who doubles as the village youth leader, said to have sent thugs to beat Emeka to death, while Edet later died after testifying in court.
Some of the youths who took part in the incident that occurred April 28, 2017, it was learnt, have not been found till today since the trial commenced in Ibiono Ibom, and eventually got to Uyo, where Justice Bassey Nkanang delivered the judgment on extended jurisdiction upon his transfer from lbiono Ibom Judicial Division in October, 2021.
In a two-hour judgement, Justice Nkanang found Mrs Udo and Ekpo Atai guilty of manslaughter and sentenced them to life confinement, holding that “Nigeria is where it is today because of characters like Inspector Samuel Udoh of the Homicide Section of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state Police Command, the investigative officer, who manipulated the processes to suit their selfish purposes.”
Besides, the judge recalled that the prosecution witness, Sergeant Okon Atte, from Ibiono Ibom Police Divisional Headquarters who first investigated the incident, had stated “in his testimony that he picked up the body of late Ikenna Emeka on the road, close to the compound of the first convict, Mrs Idongesit Emmanuel Udo, at in Oko lta.”
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