NIGERIA: DELTA COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR KILLING TWINS FOR RITUALS

A High Court sitting at Asaba, the Delta State capital, on July 16,2024 sentenced one Onuwa Ijie to death, and Nwanozie Uzor to 14 years imprisonment for murder and conspiracy to commit the murder of twin boys, Chidalu and Chigozie Agwunobi.
The court presided over by Justice Onome Marshal-Umukoro sentenced two convicts over the murder of the seven-year-old boys.
The prosecution conducted by a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Justice, Mrs Paula Akpoguma, in proof of the case called five witnesses.
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 penis, 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 introduced the idea of human rituals to the second defendant by providing the phone number of Chukwudi Edemuzor, who was allegedly seeking twins for ritual purposes.
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 July 16, the prosecuting counsel, Akpoguma thanked the court for upholding the cause of justice, “reaffirming that the judicial system works.”