The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed that the
death sentence which was passed on the General-Overseer of the Christian Praying
Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo (aka Rev. King), by a Lagos High Court in
Ikeja for the murder and attempted murder of some members of his church
in 2006 will hold.
The cleric was sentenced to death by
hanging by then trial judge of the Lagos High Court, Justice Olubunmi
Oyewole (now Justice of the Court of Appeal) on January 11, 2007.
A five-man panel of the apex court
led by Justice Walter Onnoghen, on Friday, dismissed the appeal filed by
the cleric against the concurrent judgments of the Lagos High Court in
Ikeja and Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, which had both
convicted him of the alleged crimes.
Ezeugo had appealed to the Court of Appeal against the judgment of Justice Oyewole.
But the judgment of the Lagos High Court was affirmedd by the Court of Appeal in its verdict delivered on February 1, 2013.
The judgment of the appeal court was further affirmed by the Supreme Court on Friday.
In his opening remarks, Justice
Sylvester Ngwuta, who read the lead judgment, said, “The fact of this
case could have been lifted from a horror film.”
The Justice Amina Augie-led three-man
panel of the appeal court, had unanimously dismissed Ezeugo’s appeal,
stating that the prosecution had “surely and effectively” proved its
case against him at the trial court.
Justice Fatima Akinbami who read the
lead judgment had dismissed the appellant’s contention that there were
“contradictions and inconsistencies” in the prosecution’s evidence.
Source: http://www.punchng.com/rev-king-must-die-by-hanging-supreme-court-%E2%80%8Eorders/
Post a Comment