Four men have been sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of a woman, Esther Edomobi, at her residence on Cocaine Estate in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The convicts, Zakariah Dauda, Inah-Inah Edet, Sunday Pius, and Isaac Marcus, have been standing trial since 2008 for conspiracy, armed robbery and murder of Edomobi.
The deceased had employed one of the convicts as a security guard in her residence and was killed on May 24, 2008.
The trial judge, Justice Weli Chechey, of the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, found them guilty of conspiring among themselves to kill the woman, carting away her property and millions of pounds.
Justice Chechey ruled that the evidence presented before the court showed that the defendants committed the crime by hitting the deceased hard several times in her face and plucking out her right eye.
The judge also held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced the accused persons to death.
The prosecution counsel, Nathaniel Ukotije-Mbaba, told newsmen that the judgment had served the course of justice for the dead, the living and the state.
“As a matter of fact, there is a proposition by lawyers that justice delayed is justice denied. But from this trial, until this day about 14 years now, it goes to show that the statement is wrong; justice delayed is not justice denied.
“The judgment was able to cover everything, even issues that lawyers did not canvass. The court was able to cover them so that should the defendants want to test this judgment on an appeal, there would be no room for that,” he added.
On her part, counsel for the defendants, Comfort Amadi, expressed dissatisfaction with the judgement.
She said, “It is quite painful that the court has taken its decision, though my clients spent 14 years in prison before the judgment and were coming to court.
“But inasmuch as it has turned out this way, we still have to appeal and see what happens thereafter,” Amadi stated.
The deceased’s husband, Boniface Edomobi, thanked the court for the judgment, saying it had wiped away his tears of many years.
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