Drama ensued as Uduak Akpan who raped and killed Iniubong Umoren, the female job seeker, was overpowered by security officials as he attempted to escape after hearing death sentence.
Uduak Akpan was tried and sentenced to death by Akwa Ibom State High Court for murdering Miss Umoren in his father’s compound in Nung Ikono Obio in Uruan Local Government Area of the state in April last year.
Justice Bassey Nkanang, in his judgement on Thursday, August 4, found Mr Akpan guilty of murder and handed down death by hanging and for rape sentenced him to life imprisonment.
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The judge said the prosecution has proved beyond doubt the case of rape and murder against Mr Akpan.
He, however, discharged and acquitted the father and sister of Mr Akpan, who were the 2nd and the 3rd defendants in the case.
After the judge read out the judgment, the convicted rapist attempted to escape from the courtroom but was overpowered by security officials.
Mr Nkanang took over two hours to finish reading the judgement.
How it began
Ms Umoren was not seen on April 29, 2021 after she was lured out of her home in Uyo with a fake job interview by Uduak Akpan.
The victim’s friend, Uduak Umoh, said she heard her scream for help when she established contact with her on the phone.
“She sent me a 1sec audio record on WhatsApp and I had to call her back to know if she wanted to say something to me but immediately I called her, I heard her screaming,” Ms Umoh had tweeted during the search for the slain woman.
The police later exhumed Ms Umoren in a shallow grave on April 30, 2021, a day after she was raped and killed at Mr Akpan’s family compound.
Before her death, Ms Umoren was a fresh Philosophy graduate of the University of Uyo. She was waiting for her deployment for the mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) Programme.
Ms Umoren did not live to see her mobilisation letter for the programme or even her final-year result – she got Second Class Upper in her department.
Testimonies
The convict, Mr Akpan, first appeared in court on July 26, 2021 and pleaded guilty to murder, and not guilty to rape.
The court, however, entered a not-guilty plea for the murder of Ms Umoren.
The Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Uko Udom, who led the prosecution team, told reporters, “For a capital offence, an accused person pleading guilty is neither here nor there. As far as the law is concerned, he is not guilty until we (prosecution) prove our case.”
“So if an accused person pleads guilty in a capital offence like this, the court normally would enter a plea of not guilty for him,” Mr Sam had said.
Mr Akpan later made a U-turn during his trial and denied raping and killing Ms Umoren.
He told the court that he had a “fever” the day he pleaded guilty and that it was the influence of his “IPO in the court” that made him plead guilty.
He also denied the confessional statements he made to the police and added that a similar statement he made to the State Security Services (SSS) was done under duress.
But Ama Okeke, a call data analyst with the SSS, who testified before the court, presented a video recording of Mr Akpan’s interview session which countered his claims. The court admitted the video as evidence.
Mr Okeke also told the court that from the agency’s call record analysis, Mr Akpan and Ms Umoren were at the same cell record and coordinate (location) in Nung Ikono Obio in Uruan Local Government Area.
He further told the court that SSS investigations led to the arrest of Mr Akpan’s sister, who is the 3rd accused person, Bassey-anwan, in Calabar, Cross River State.
Besides his confessional statements to the police and the SSS, Mr Akpan, while he was paraded at the police headquarters in Uyo, told reporters how he lured and killed the victim.
In his testimony before the court to justify his son’s innocence, Frank Akpan, the father of the convict, told the court his son had a mental disorder and was an outpatient at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital.
Bassey-anwan, in her testimonies, admitted her brother visited her but she said as of the time of the visit, her brother was accused of kidnapping Ms Umoren, from what she had learnt on Facebook.
She told the court she had asked the brother to go back to Uyo and clear his name.
Witnesses’ Corroboration
One Miriam Akpan admitted that she knew Uduak Frank Akpan and that she has also been a victim of his fake job interview in his hometown, Uruan, where he sexually assaulted her, took her nude pictures and seized her phone with support of his sister, Bassey Anwan Akpan who is the third accused person in the charge.
After giving her evidence, she was crossed examined.
Thereafter, the fourth prosecution witness and elder sister of the deceased, Miss Ifiok Umoren in her own evidence, corroborated the testimony of the third prosecution witness.
Miss Ifiok Umoren told the Court that she had reported the missing of her younger sister to the Police in Uruan, who told her to wait for 48 hours before coming back to the Station for the complaint.
She said at the expiration of the 48 hours, on 1st May, 2021, she went to the Anti- Kidnapping Unit of Akwa Ibom State Police Command’s Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia. She was told that Uduak Frank Akpan has confessed that he killed Iniubong Umoren and buried her in a shallow grave in his residence, Uruan.
Pathologist’s report
Dr. Emeka Nwafor, Senior Consultant Pathologist in the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo on the alleged murder of Miss Umoren on November 15, last year said, ”There were three openings on the forehead- two on the right hand side, one on the left.’’
“My Lord, I performed a post mortem examination on a body identified as Iniubong Umoren and these are my findings: ”The body was a moderate decomposing body of a young female African origin. The body was muzzled and swollen. She wore an earring on the right ear, no earring on the left ear. The two eyes collapsed and bulged out of the surface. The lips were swollen and mouth open,’’ Nwafor admitted.
According to him, ”The pubic area was well shaved with no injury or mark on it. The toe nails were painted blue, fingernails red. Three openings on the forehead. Two on the right hand side, one on the left. Right forehead measured 4×1.5cms, 6cms above the right eye orbit, 2cms below the hairline.
”Left acceleration hairline measured 8x3vms above the left eye margin. Right acceleration measured 4x4cms from the midline of the centre head.
”By openings, all the organs were in abnormal and anatomic positions. There was excessive milk colour fluid on the thoracic cavity.
”All the internal organs were in advantage stage of decomposition. On the brain, there was moderate bleeding beneath the scalp, no skull fracture. The brain was completely decomposed.
”I also carried out microscopic examination of the skin acceleration and it showed vital reactions which meant that the reactions occurred when the deceased was alive,” the pathologist narrated.
Defence counsel’s submission
Sampson Adulla, a lawyer from the Legal Aid Counsel, provided free legal services to Mr Akpan.
Mr Adulla, while adopting his final written address, prayed the court to rely on “weak facts” presented by the prosecution to discharge and acquit his client.
He asked the court to discountenance Mr Akpan’s confessional statement because “there was no witness to testify that his client committed the murder”.
On Mr Frank and Ms Bassey-anwan, Mr Adulla had urged the court to discharge and acquit them because there was no evidence before the court that the duo knew that Mr Akpan was being accused of murder.
He had argued that at the time Mr Akpan visited her sister in Calabar, his alleged offence was kidnapping and not murder.
Prosecution’s angle
The prosecution counsel, Friday Itim, a deputy director of public prosecution in the Ministry of Justice, Akwa Ibom State, had reminded the judge how Mr Akpan pleaded guilty to the charge of murder, but not rape, on his first court appearance in July last year.
Mr Itim had also drawn the court’s attention to the fact that they (prosecution) had proven that there was communication between Mr Frank and her daughter (Bassey-anwan) via text message on the day of the incident.
The court had admitted the phone and text message as evidence.
