Two Abia Vigilante Members To Die By Hanging For Murder

An Abia High Court sitting in Ukwa has sentenced two members of Abia Vigilante 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 had claimed that they arrested the youths in 2013 for being in possession of firearms, cartridges and knives.

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

They maintained that they did not know the names of the soldiers neither were they 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.