A man identified as Onuwa Oliseh Ijie has been sentenced to death by a High Court sitting at Asaba, Delta State, over the murder of seven-year-old twin boys, Chidalu and Chigozie Agwunobi, for ritual purposes.
The court presided over by Justice Onome Marshal-Umukoro, also sentenced Onuwa’s accomplice, Nwanozie Uzor, to 14 years imprisonment for conspiracy to commit the murder. Both convicts are relatives of the deceased twins.
The prosecution conducted by a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Justice, Mrs Paula Akpoguma, in proof of the case called five witnesses.
A news release issued on Tuesday, July 16, by the Public Relations Officer of the state Ministry of Justice, Onoriode Etatsemi, stated that the court held that the testimony of the five witnesses proved the case against the two defendants beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution stated that tragedy struck the family of Olise Agwunobi of Oko-Ogbele Community on March 5, 2020, when their seven-year-old twin boys were lured by the defendants to a bush and they proceeded to cut off their pen!s, eyes, tongues and hands which they hurriedly took to a native doctor at Aguleri in Anambra State.
“One of the defendants had earlier gone to the school of the twin children to take them but was turned down by the school teacher, one Mrs Emelda Ezekwude,” she said.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Marshal-Umukoro stated that after carefully evaluating the evidence presented before him, the prosecution had discharged the burden of proof as the first defendant from his confessional statement was the person who sowed the seed of committing human rituals in the mind of the second defendant by giving the phone number of one Chukwudi Edemuzor who was alleged to be searching for twins to kill for money.
The court maintained that the law is settled that the testimony of an investigating police officer was not hearsay evidence, and the court can rely on it.
Speaking with journalists after the judgment on Tuesday, the prosecuting counsel, Akpoguma thanked the court for upholding the cause of justice, “reaffirming that the judicial system works.
