Five individuals have been sentenced to death by the court for the murder of the vigilante commander in Rivers.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, a High Court has handed down convictions and death sentences to five individuals for the murder of Umezuruike Alex, the commander of a local vigilante group known as OSPAC (Onelga Security Peace and Advisory Committee) in Omudioga community, Emohua Local Government Area of the state.
The former OSPAC commander was ruthlessly killed in 2021, with his body beheaded and dismembered by the cultists.
The court ruled that the convicted individuals should either be hanged or receive lethal injection until their death is confirmed.\
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The convicts, namely Okechukwu Orji from Atali community in Obio-Akpor; Igwe Promise, Iheanyi Igwe, Morrison Igwe, from Omudioga in Emohua LGA; and Goodness Monday from Akwa Ibom State, were deemed guilty of 10 charges including conspiracy, cultism, murder, and illegal possession of firearms.
During the trial, Justice Sika Aprioku, the presiding judge, rendered a verdict by acquitting and discharging the sixth defendant, Alex Deiwe.
Justice Aprioku determined that the prosecution counsel, Essien Edet, successfully substantiated the case against the remaining five convicts regarding charges of conspiracy, cultism, illegal possession of firearms, and murder. As a result, the court convicted and sentenced them to either hanging or lethal injection until their death is confirmed.
Additionally, the court found that the convicted individuals not only perpetrated the murder of the OSPAC commander in Omudioga community but were also engaged in kidnapping and various other criminal activities across parts of the state before their apprehension and subsequent prosecution.
Addressing reporters outside the courtroom, Essien Edet, the prosecution counsel and legal officer at the Rivers State Police Command, conveyed his satisfaction with the verdict, characterizing it as the rightful dispensation of justice. Edet emphasized that the judgment would act as a deterrent to individuals engaged in similar criminal activities.
“I can say that justice has been served. It is a case of the murder of the former OSPAC Commander of the Omudioga community in Emuoha LGA. The case has been on for years. It was a case in which this OSPAC Commander was gruesomely murdered and dismembered by this group of criminals,” he stated.
“Today, the court has finally given judgment on the matter, and I believe justice has been served. It is a lesson to all those who are going about committing heinous crimes, killing people, taking the lives of human beings as if such are not valuable that justice is also coming after them except they repent.”
