TheCable

The high court sitting in Akwa Ibom has sentenced Essien Matthew Odiong, the 82-year-old village head of Efen Ibom, Ika LGA of the state, to death over the murder of the one Udoma Udo Ubom.

The monarch was charged to court on four counts of conspiracy, directing unlawful trial by ordeal, stealing of motorcycle and murder of the owner, identified as Ubom.

According to the PUNCH, Edem Akpan, the trial judge, on Friday, ruled that the monarch is guilty of the murder by injecting some chemical substance into his subject on April 26, 2017.

The judge said the deceased was accused by his brothers of being a wizard and was reported to the village head who presented him before the village council.

According to the judge, the council administered an oath to swear for the deceased to prove his innocence.

The judge sentenced the village head to death by hanging for murder, seven years imprisonment with hard labour for directing unlawful trial and three years imprisonment for conspiracy with others now at large.

“Having sensed the consequences of his criminal activity, the monarch escaped from the village in 2017 and returned in 2019, when he was arrested by the police,” the judge ruled.

“The accused had voluntarily admitted that he sat at Efen Clan council with five other village heads and members of the Clan council to try the deceased on the allegation of witchcraft, and the law has relieved the prosecution of the burden to prove the offence of conspiracy.

“The admission of the process of trial and the decision of Efen Clan Council to administer oath on the deceased has logically brought to the conclusion that a plastic bath on the head of the late Udoma Akpan Udo Ubom and injecting some chemical substance through a syringe into his buttocks by the village head, caused the death of the deceased.”

Before the ruling, the convicted village head popularly known as “kill and bury” asked the court to temper justice with mercy.