A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers has sentenced a pastor, Chidiebere Okoroafor, to death by hanging for murder.
Okoroafor, who is the General Overseer of a new generation church based in Oyigbo area of the State was tried for killing his choir mistress, Orlunma Nwagba, who he allegedly impregnated.
He also faced murder charges for the killing of Nwagba’s friend, Chigozie Ezenwa, and her eleven-month-old daughter, Cresabel, on December 11, 2017, in the Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state.
The trial Judge, S O Benson in his judgment delivered on Monday said the evidence and confessional statement by Pastor Okoroafor proved he murdered his Church’s choir mistress after getting her pregnant and also killed her friend, Chigozie Ezenwa with her daughter, Christabel Ezenwa.
Justice Benson said the prosecution proved the case of murder against the cleric and ordered that he should be killed by hanging him by the neck until he is dead or should be injected with a lethal injection which also kills faster.
Punch Newspaper reported that the women had visited the pastor’s house in Oyigbo for a discussion on the said pregnancy when he tricked them into a bush and allegedly committed the act in two different locations.
Men of the Rivers State Police Command had on December 17, 2017, arrested Okoroafor following an alarm raised by Ezenwa’s husband over the killing of the three persons.
Reacting, counsel for the defendant, Innocent Ekwu, said he and his team would appeal the judgment.
“We, as counsel for the defendant, have decided to appeal the case. We are going to file our notice of appeal as quickly as possible because we have grounds on which we believe that the defendant did not commit the offence,” he said.
Source: Punch Newspaper
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