A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Monday, convicted and sentenced five men to death by hanging for murdering one Umezuruike Alex, the former commander of a local vigilante known as OSPAC in Omudioga community, Emohua Local Government Area of the state.
Recall, that the former OSPAC commander, Umezuruike Alex, was killed, beheaded, and other parts of his body dismembered by the convicts in 2021 when they felt that the vigilante commander was a threat to their criminal activities in the community.
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OSPAC is an acronym for Onelga Security Peace and Advisory Committee, a local vigilance group that operates in some Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
The court, presided over by Justice Sika Aprioku, while delivering judgment, ordered that the convicts be hanged or injected with a lethal injection until they were confirmed dead.
The convicts, identified as Okechukwu Orji from the Atali community in Obio-Akpor, Igwe Promise, Iheanyi Igwe, Morrison Igwe, from Omudioga in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, and Goodness Monday from Akwa Ibom State, were found guilty of 10 counts charge, bordering on conspiracy, cultism, murder, and illegal possession of firearms.
The trial, however, discharged and acquitted the sixth defendant in the suit, Alex Deiwe, stating that the prosecution counsel, Essien Edet, proved his case against the other five convicts on charges of conspiracy, cultism, illegal possession of firearms, and murder.
The court also held that the five convicts did not only murder the former OSPAC commander, but were also involved in kidnapping and other criminal activities in parts of the state before their arrest and prosecution.
Speaking outside the courtroom with some journalists, the prosecution counsel, Essien Edet, who is a legal officer in the Rivers State Police Command, said the judgment would serve as a deterrent to others who are involved in or contemplating similar crimes.
He stated, “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 ongoing for years. It was a case that this OSPAC commander was gruesomely murdered and dismembered by this group of criminals.
“Today the court has finally given judgment on the matter, and I believe justice has been served. It is a lesson to all those that are going about committing heinous crimes, killing people, and taking the lives of human beings as if such are not valuable that justice is also coming after them except they repent.”