A Delta State High Court sitting in the Kwale Judicial Division has sentenced a 44-year-old man, Lucky Edozien, and his accomplice, 33-year-old Amaechi Enuebuka, to death by hanging for the gruesome murder of Edozien’s mother, Mrs. Janeth Odinuwe.
Delivering judgment in the case, Justice D.C. Maidoh found the duo guilty of killing the 70-year-old woman in her residence at Umudike Quarters, Ossissa, in Ndokwa West Local Government Area, on April 13, 2023.
The judge held that their actions contravened Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Delta State, 2006.
The prosecution, led by Assistant Director in the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Catherine Oberuomo, told the court that Edozien conspired with Enuebuka, a commercial motorcyclist and part-time disc jockey, to carry out the killing.
According to the prosecution, Edozien had alleged that a ring worn by his mother was responsible for the misfortunes he was facing in life, a belief that allegedly fueled the plot to eliminate her.
The court heard that Edozien lured his accomplice into the scheme with a promise of musical instruments, assigning him the role of distracting the deceased’s sister, Mrs. Paulinah Okonji.
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Enuebuka reportedly engaged Mrs. Okonji in a conversation under the pretext of negotiating the purchase of scrap metal behind the house, thereby creating the opportunity for Edozien to gain access to his mother’s room.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Edozien allegedly entered the room and strangled his mother to death.
Although there was no eyewitness account and Mrs. Okonji declined to testify, the prosecution successfully established the case through police investigative findings and the application of the “Doctrine of Last Seen,” which placed the deceased in the company of the accused persons shortly before her death.
The court therefore convicted both defendants and sentenced them to death by hanging.
