Two brothers in Akwa Ibom State will die by hanging for killing a farmer over a parcel of land, High Court has ruled.
The convicted are 48-year-old Uduak Udo Umoren, a pastor and motorcyclist and 34-year-old Emmanuel Udo Umoren, a farmer and panel beater, both indigenes of Adiasim Ikot Ekon Village in Essien Udim Local Government Area.
They were condemned for the murder of one Iboro Akpan Joe, a 45-year-old farmer and a trader from Ikot Otu also in Essien Udim, when he visited his sister-in-law in Adiasim Ikot Ekon to condole her on the death of her husband.
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The sister-in-law had asked the deceased to accompany her to her late husband’s farmland to assess how much she could sell it for his burial.
It was gathered that, while on the land, the wife of the second convict saw them and called her husband informing him that someone was trying to bury juju on their family land.
On getting to the farmland, the second convict beat the deceased while his wife also invited her son and her brother-in-law who joined in beating the deceased with a machete, stabbing him with broken bottles.
The plea of the sister-in-law and the deceased’s wife, who heard the cry for help and rushed to the scene, fell on deaf ears, as the deceased was beaten to a state of coma and dragged to his family compound close to the farm.
At the family compound, the two convicts continued to beat the deceased until the youths of Adiasim Ikot Ekon Village led by their President, rescued him and rushed him to the General Hospital, Ikot Ekpene, where he was rejected for treatment.
It was also gathered that the deceased was taken back to his village, where he died three days after the incident.
The High Court in Essien Udim presided over by Justice Winifred Effiong found the two accused guilty of murder and sentenced them to death by hanging.
In her judgement, Justice Effiong said the prosecution team from the State Ministry of Justice had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt that the accused’ did intentionally kill the deceased.
