A dismissed soldier with the Nigerian Army, 6 Battalion, Ibagwa in Abak, Corporal Stephen Iweh, was, Friday, sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of a 42-year-old man, Christopher Enobong Jimmy.
Iweh killed Jimmy, who was the Manager of a Clearing and Forwarding Company in Port Harcourt, along the East-West Road in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area on 23rd May, 2021.
Jimmy had offered Corporal Iweh a lift in his car from Trailer Park in Onne, Rivers State, to Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom.
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At Oboro Junction in Ikot Abasi where they had stopped to urinate and eat pork meat, the 39-year-old soldier shot him dead before he fled with the vehicle and valuables to an unknown destination.
Investigations revealed that Corporal Iweh, a father of three children, had illegally kept the AK-47 rifle, which he said, he “picked at Dambou, Borno State in 2018 and decided to keep it as personal arms.”
He was later traced to Andy Guest House in Ukanafun, many kilometers from the scene of crime, where he was arrested and the rifle recovered.
Armed with an AK-47 rifle unlawfully possessed without a licence, the dismissed soldier murdered Jimmy, an indigene of Ikot Abasi, and robbed him of his gray Toyota Matrix car.
Giving judgment, Hon. Justice Bassey Nkanang, the trial judge, at Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo held that the prosecution proved his case beyond reasonable doubt that Corporal Iweh, a native of Ameke Nkor in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State.
According to Court records, Corporal Iweh, who joined the Nigerian Army in 2002, had illegally kept the AK-47 rifle which he said he “picked at Dambou, Borno State in 2018 and decided to keep it as personal arm.”
Justice Nkanang convicted him on a three-count charge, sentenced him to death by hanging for murder and robbery, and imposed 10 years imprisonment for unlawful possession of firearms.
In his plea for mercy, the convict begged the court for what, he described as a “soft landing,” but his allocutus was rejected.
Jimmy is survived by his 34-year-old widow, Arit, who tearfully recounted that her husband had left Port Harcourt in Rivers State to visit his sister and family in Ikot Abasi, but did not return home.
