A High Court in Asaba, Delta State’s capital, has sentenced Onuwa Ijie to death and Nwanozie Uzor to 14 years in prison for murder and conspiracy to commit murder of twin boys Chidalu and Chigozie Agwunobi for ritual purposes.
Justice Onome Marshal-Umukoro presided over the sentencing of two murderers of seven-year-old boys.
Mrs. Paula Akpoguma, a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Justice, led the prosecution, which called five witnesses as evidence in the case.
The court determined that the testimony of the five witnesses established the case against the two defendants beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution claimed that tragedy struck the family of Olise Agwunobi of Oko-Ogbele Community on March 5, 2020, when the defendants lured their seven-year-old twin boys to a bush and cut off their penis, eyes, tongues, and hands, which they rushed to a native doctor in Aguleri, 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.
Justice Marshal-Umukoro stated in his verdict that after carefully evaluating the evidence presented before him, the prosecution had discharged the burden of proof because the first defendant, according to his confessional statement, was the one who planted the seed of committing human rituals in the mind of the second defendant by providing the phone number of one Chukwudi Edemuzor, who was alleged to be looking for twins to kill for money.
The court maintained that the testimony of an investigating police officer is not hearsay evidence and can be relied on.
Speaking with journalists after the ruling on Tuesday, the prosecuting counsel, Akpoguma, thanked the court for upholding the cause of justice, “reaffirming that the judicial system works.”
