A 31-year-old man from Akwa Ibom State wept uncontrollably as the State High Court in Ikot Ekpene slammed him death for robbery and life imprisonment for rape.
Nsikak Joseph Udofia, a native of Utu Edem Usung in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area, was convicted Thursday, April 7 after the court had found him guilty of robbery and rape.
Udofia, a secondary school dropout, along others at large, was said to have “robbed a shoe mender, Gabriel Akpan Victor, of his torchlight, two knives, a roll of black thread, two palm slippers and N200,355 (two thousand, three hundred and fifty Naira) while on his way home from work on December 31, 2017.”
Three weeks after, the convict is also said to have raped a 16-year-old SS 2 student in an uncompleted building in Utu Edem Usung, Ikot Ekpene on January 21, 2018.
Read also: Akwa Ibom Court sentences 36-year-old to Death for Robbery
In a two-hour judgement, Justice Augustine Odokwo, the trial judge, found the accused guilty of the two-count charge, which are punishable under Section One sub-one of Robbery and Firearms Special Provisions Act, Laws of the Federation and Section three-six-seven of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Laws of Akwa Ibom State, 2000.
The Court held that the Prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person committed the offenses.
In the first count charge of robbery, Justice Odokwo sentenced Nsikak Udofia to death by hanging, praying God to have mercy on his soul.
In the second count charge of rape, the Court held that Nsikak Udofia shall serve a life sentence in Ikot Ekpene Correctional Centre.
Justice Odokwo held that “the sentence is to run consecutively as the offense of rape is prevalent in Ikot Ekpene.”
He ordered the Clerk of the Court to keep in her safe custody, all the exhibits pending appeal, if any, and return them to the parties that tendered the exhibits, if after the period allowed for appeal, no notice of appeal is filed.
