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CROSS RIVER: Retired NNPC employee to die by hanging

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Court remands pastor for killing, burying lover in church

Mr. Godwin Elewana, a retired former employee of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will die by hanging after he was found guilty of killing his daughters boyfriend.

The convict was found guilty by a Cross River State High Court sitting in Calabar of murdering Douglas Ojugbo, 22, on March 10, 2015 whom he suspected was having an affair with his daughter identified as Mercy.

The convict was arraigned on one count of murder in case no. HC/9C/2015 and according to the Ukpa Ebitam, the presiding judge, the prosecution team, led by Mr. Eneji Amajama, had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt that Elewana committed the crime.

The presiding judge said; “The prosecution team was able to establish ingredients of murder against the accused. On whether it was the act of the accused that caused the death of the victim, the prosecution team placed reliance mostly on the confessional statement of the accused…clearly, the statement linked the murder to the accused.

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“The prosecution team also proved the second ingredient of murder which was the intentional act. To have fired the victim twice with his pump-action gun, I agree that the killing was intentional. I hereby find the accused person guilty of murder.

“Subject to Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Cross River State, any person who commits murder is sentenced to death by hanging.”

Moments after the presiding judge delivered his verdict, Amajama, the leader of the prosecution team, Amajama, said the law had taken its due course.

“I thank God that we have industrious and sound judges who still uphold the rule of law. Today, the parents of the deceased would have some respite that the law of the land took its course.

“This judgment will serve as a deterrent to others that you cannot do what is wrong and go away with it and I think that our society will be better for it.
“The accused was tried under Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Cross River State. Under this section, the judge does not have the right to give him life imprisonment or any other jail term. The judge has just done what the law stipulates,” Amajan said.

 

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