A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, on Monday, February 15, 2021, sentenced one Sodienye Mbatumukeke, to death after finding him guilty of two count charges of murder and armed robbery.
The accused has been on trial since 2017 alongside one Excel Naabee. However, Nabee, was acquitted and discharged by Justice Chigozie Igwe.
Police had alleged that the two accused conspired to kill one Chukwuma Eleje, a Dispatcher for an e-commerce company, when he went to deliver items which included an iPhone and other valuables ordered by Mbatumueke and his accomplice, Naabee in March 2017, at their residence.
According to the police, the suspects had strangled Eleje and dump his body in a septic tank. His remains was later recovered by Homicide detectives of the Rivers State Police Command. The duo were first arraigned before a Chief Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt before the case was transferred to the State High Court.
Justice Chigozie Igwe had reserved judgment till today, 15 January 2021 after the lawyers to the accused made the final submission last December. In his submission, Bonaventure Ugwu, the counsel to Mbatumueke, had urged the court to discharge and acquit his client with claim that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Lucky Agor, the lawyer to Naabee, also asked the court to discharge and acquit his client, arguing that the prosecution failed to prove that Naabee was an accomplice in the murder of Eleje.
But in a counter submission, the Prosecution Counsel urged the Court to convict the accused as the 42 exhibits and 10 witnesses presented before the court proved their culpability in the murder of the dispatch rider. He said the confessional statement of Mbatumeke proved that he tricked the deceased to come into the compound so he could kill him and collect his valuables.
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