The Etinan Division of the Akwa Ibom State High Court presided over by Justice Ezekiel Enang, has sentenced a 37-year-old man, Moses Abdon Edo, to death by hanging for killing his father, Abdon Peter Edo, whose corpse and grave could not be located since the gruesome incident eight years ago.
The convict, a native of Ikot Ukobo in Nsit Ubium local government area was condemned to die by hanging for willfully murdering his biological father in cold blood.
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The court held that the convict, a motorcyclist “had confessed in his extrajudicial statement that he single-handedly killed his father in a broad daylight of 29th July, 2015 in Ikot Ukobo, Nsit Ubium LGA, and buried his remains beside his late son’s grave, which could not be located.”
Justice Enang, in a one-hour judgement recalled that the convict, who is the first son of the deceased, “also confessed that he pursued his father to the backyard of his old building and hit his head on the wall where he died on the spot over landed property.”
The court held that “once a confessional statement is positive, direct and unequivocal of fact, it is sufficient to secure conviction of the accused even without the evidence being collaborated.”
According to the court, “in a charge of murder, what the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt, are the ingredients of the offence that the deceased died and that the death was caused by the act of the accused with an intention to kill or cause him grievous bodily harm.”
The court held that by smashing the head of his father on the wall, the convict had intended to kill him, and consequently found him guilty of murder and ordered that “he should be hang to death or lethal substance injected inside him until he is dead.”
The case which was prosecuted by the State Ministry of Justice and defended by the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACN), finally laid to rest, the protracted eight years of prosecution of the matter at the trial court.