Imo State High Court presided over by Hon. Justice C.M.I. Egole, has sentenced eight persons to death by hanging for their alleged involvement in the brutal murder of an ex-police officer, Nze Dominic Ohamadiaku Duru, from Izombe, Oguta lcal council area of the state.
Those waiting for the hangman include James Ugwuoha Duru, Fester Nuforo, Alexander Nnadi alias Apollo, Friday Nuforo and Jonathan Chuddy Nnadi, a staff of Imo Broadcasting Corporation, IBC, Owerri.
Others are Chifoanu Okorie, Matthias Ohazurike and Evans Egbujor, while the ninth accused person, Mrs. Sussana James Duru, was however discharged and acquitted by the court for not participating actively in the dastardly act.
Delivering judgment Wednesday after analyzing critically the evidence before him in suit number HOW/4C/2007, Justice Egole pronounced the eight persons guilty of conspiracy and murder.
“You are to be hanged on your neck until you be dead and may God have mercy on your souls”, Justice Egole said.
In exonerating the woman, Egole said she was only linked to one of the convicts, James Ugwuoha Duru, by marriage, adding that although she accompanied her husband to the house of the deceased on that fateful day, she never participated in the heineous act.
In pleading for leniency, the convicts took turns in showering encomium of the deceased and even went further to describe him as “our father and benefactor” and appealed to the court to tamper justice with mercy.
Evans Egbujor expressed worry over the uncertainty that now envelopes his immediate family, especiallas his wife is currently lying the morgue and awaiting burial.
Vanguard recalls that the convicted persons and others at large, had on that fateful day, lured the deceased to his farmland in Okpuzi in the village, where they laid siege for him and snuffed life out of him.
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