Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, has sentenced a dismissed soldier Corporal Stephen Iweh to death by hanging for the murder one Christopher Enobong Jimmy who offered him lift.
Justice Bassey Nkanang held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Corporal Iweh, a dismissed soldier of the Nigerian Army, 6 Battalion, Ibagwa in Abak, armed with unauthorised AK47 rifle, murdered Jimmy, indigene of Ikot Abasi and robbed him of his Toyota Matrix car.
native of Ameke Nkor, Ngor Okpala Local Government Area, Imo State, armed with unauthorised AK47 rifle, murdered Jimmy, indigene of Ikot Abasi and robbed him of his Toyota Matrix car.
The incident occurred 23rd May, 2021 along the East-West Road in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area while Jimmy, Manager of a Clearing and Forwarding Company in Port Harcourt, Rivers state offered Corporal Iweh a lift in his car from Trailer Park, Onne in Rivers State to Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom.
The court heard that on the free ride at Oboro Junction, Ikot Abasi, the 39 year-old soldier, father of three, shot the victim on the head with a concealed AK-47 rifle he said to have picked at Dambou, Borno State in 2018 and kept as personal arms and then fled with the vehicle and valuables.
Corporal Iweh was said to have abandoned official duty at the Army Store, 6 Battalion, Ibagwa, Abak, to commit the crime on the fateful day and was tracked to Andy Guest House in Ukanafun, several kilometers from the scene of crime, where he was arrested and the rifle recovered.
Jimmy, the victim Manager was travelling home in his grey Toyota Matrix when he gave offered lift to Iweh, dressed in full military uniform at popular Trailer Park, Onne on the East West Road enroute Akwa Ibom State.
The soldier shot Jimmy at a junction in Oboro, Ikot Abasi, where they had stopped to urinate and eat Pork meat, before fleeing with the vehicle and other belongings.
He was convicted on a three-count charge. Justice Nkanang sentenced Iweh to death by hanging for murder, death by hanging for armed robbery and 10 years imprisonment for unlawful possession of firearms.
