A soldier, Corporal Stephen Iweh, who was attached to 6 Battalion, Ibagwa, Abak local government area of Akwa Ibom State and dismissed for murder and armed Robbery about four years ago has been sentenced to death by hanging.
The Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, the capital and presided over by Justice Bassey Nkanang, sentenced Iweh to death after prosecutors proved that he killed a 42-year-old Christopher Enobong Jimmy who offered him a ride from Onne in Rivers State to Uyo.
LEADERSHIP, however, gathered that while on thier way, the convict, who was still in service and in military camouflage with arms, overpowered the deceased, shot him to death and fled with the car.
The particulars of the case noted that “the incident occurred on 23rd May, 2021, along the Ikot Abasi LGA portion of the East-West Road.”
“The late Jimmy, who was the Manager of a Clearing and Forwarding Company in Port Harcourt, had offered Corporal Iweh a ride in his car from Trailer Park in Onne, Rivers State to Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom.
“Along the way, at Oboro Junction in Ikot Abasi, the 39-year-old soldier shot him dead before fleeing with the vehicle and valuables.
“Investigations revealed that Corporal Iweh, a father of three children, had illegally kept the AK-47 rifle which he recalled he picked at Dambou, Borno State in 2018, and decided to keep it as his personal arms.
“On the day of the killing, Corporal Iweh, was supposed to be on duty at the Army Store, 6 Battalion, Ibagwa, Abak, but abandoned his post to commit the crime.
“He was later traced to Andy Guest House in Ukanafun LGA, many kilometers from the scene of crime, where he was arrested and the rifle recovered,” the case file stated.
However, the trial judge, Justice Nkanang, held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Iweh, a native of Ameke Nkor in Ngor Okpala LGA of Imo State, murdered the deceased, an indigene of Ikot Abasi, robbed him of his Toyota Matrix car, while armed with an AK-47 rifle, and unlawfully possessed the firearm without a license.
The court said that the soldier shot Jimmy at a junction in Oboro, Ikot Abasi, where they had stopped to urinate and eat Pork meat, before fleeing with the vehicle and other belongings..
Justice Nkanang convicted the defendant on a three-count charge and sentenced him to death by hanging for murder and armed robbery while the convict was slammed 10-year imprisonment for illegal possession of firearms.
In his plea for mercy, the convict begged the court for what he described as a “soft landing,” but his allocutus was rejected.
