Court Sentences 2 to Death by Hanging for kidnapping in Abakaliki

An Abakaliki High Court has sentenced two persons, Onyemachi Oge andOkechukwu Oma, to death by hanging for kidnapping a medical doctor.

They abducted Dr. Chuka Manyike of Paediatrics Department, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, on May 5th, 2013, at his private hospital at 15, Owerri Street, Abakaliki.

The convicts were charged alongside Chukwuemeka Levi, Idris Oken, Edeke Desmond and Ijeoma Oge for conspiracy and kidnapping.

Manyike’s security guard was shot dead during the kidnapping for attempting to prevent the hoodlums from kidnapping the doctor.

The sum of N3 million was said to have been paid as ransom before the doctor was released after six days in captivity.

According to the charge sheet, Oge and Oma got N200, 000 from the ransom. All the accused were in prison custody since their arrest after the incident.

Delivering judgment on the matter on Friday in Abakaliki, Justice Eze Udu said that the prosecution had proved its case against Oge and Oma beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced them to death by hanging.

Anikwem discharged and acquitted Levi, Oken and Desmond, but ordered that Ijeoma and her husband, who is at large, should be charged for conspiracy and kidnapping “for allowing their house to be used in keeping the victim during the incident”.

Oma, a tailor opposite Manyinke’s hospital, provided information to the kidnappers and gave them directive on how to perfect the act, while Ijeoma Oge supplied beer, biscuits and water to the doctor during his days in captivity.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the 3rd, 4th and 5th accused, D.I. Njoku, said that he would appeal the judgment against the 4th accused, who was sentenced to death.

Meanwhile, a High Court sitting in Abakaliki on Friday sentenced a woman,Josephine Onwuzuruike and her boy friend, Ekene Onyeka, to death by hanging for killing her husband.

Josephine and her boy friend Onyeka had in 2008 at Azuiyiokwu, Abakaliki butchered her husband and kept his parts inside a cupboard.

She had accused the husband of attempting to marry another wife by building a separate house other than the one they were living in. She contacted her boyfriend, who joined her to murder the man.

Delivering judgment in the case, the trial judge, Justice Benson Ogbuh, found the accused guilty of the offences of conspiracy and murder and convicted them. He sentenced them to death by hanging.

The News agency of Nigeria reports that after the judgement, Josephine wept uncontrollably and pleaded for leniency because of her children.