An Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo has sentenced a 30-year-old man, Joshua Okon Archibong to death by hanging
for his involvement in series of violent crimes including murder armed robbery, and kidnapping along the waterways of Uruan and Oron local government areas of the state.
Archibong, a native of Ekpene Ibia in Uruan local government area, a member of a notorious gang of sea pirates, was convicted on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy and armed robbery.
He apprehended after operations carried out alongside one Udeme and Isaac, now at large at Ndon Ebom Village, Uruan, where they robbed motorcyclists and roads users.
One of the victims however raised the alarm during one of such operations which attracted the villagers who arrested him while his gang members fled.
“One of the victims raised the alarm, which attracted villagers who apprehended him, while his gang members escaped,” the charge stated.
Popularly known as “Benji Kasiah,” the convict, who is a primary school dropout, had confessed in his extrajudicial statement to participating in an attack in February 2019 on a boat ferrying passengers, rice, and fish from Adadia Beach, and another operation in April of the same year.
In another criminal operation at Akpa Inne waterways, the gang shot two vigilante members at Esuk Odu Village for attempting to confront them.
Archibong revealed that the gang maintained hideouts in Inne Emman Village and Ufak Ibuot Creek in Uruan, where they stored stolen goods and held kidnapped victims, including an expatriate abducted at a construction site in Mbiaya Uruan.
He also confessed to the murder of a Police Sergeant, and kidnapping of two individuals, for whom they collected a ransom of N200,000 in December 2018.
In one particularly gruesome account, the convict admitted to shooting a boat driver on 15th August, 2019 at Ufak Ibuot Waterway for refusing to stop the vessel, an action which resulted in a stray bullet killing a pregnant woman onboard.
He also disclosed that he sought spiritual protection from a native doctor in Oku Iboku, Itu local government area of the state to evade police arrest.
Relying on the strength of the confessional statements, the presiding judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang held that “the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and found Archibong guilty of murder and armed robbery and declared the accused, Joshua Okon Archibong to be hanged by the neck until he is dead or by lethal injection.
