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NIGERIA: RIVERS STATE COURT SENTENCES TWO TO DEATH FOR KIDNAPPING, MURDER
June 15, 2023: Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on June 15, 2023 convicted and sentenced two middle-aged men to death by hanging for kidnapping and killing a prominent Rivers State businessman, Festus Mac-Pepple and one Friday Uranta in 2008.
The trial judge, Justice Danagogo, in his judgment, convicted and sentenced Orong Orong Philips and Elisha Robert, while discharging Ishmael Ogwujan.
Ogwujan was discharged and acquitted for lack of evidence to link him to the crime.
The convicted persons were said to have killed their victims and buried them in a shallow grave in Bayelsa State before they were arrested by the security agencies in 2008.
Speaking outside the courtroom, the Prosecuting Council of the state, Anthony Oma-Wamah, described the judgment as “justice for humanity.”
Oma-Wamah, who is also a Public Prosecutor in the state Ministry of Justice, said the convicts were sentenced on a three-count charge, adding that the duo were indicted by counts two and three, which are capital offences and Count One, which carries a 10-year sentence for kidnapping. (Sources: Guardian, 17/06/2023; barristerng, 16/06/2023)
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