Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
An Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo condemned Chief Essien Odiong, an 82-year-old community leader from Efen Ibom in the Ika Local Government Area, to death after finding him guilty of murder and conspiracy to murder.
According to the court, which was presided over by Justice Edem Akpan, the village leader was found guilty of injecting Udoma Ubom with a chemical substance on April 26, 2017, resulting in his death.
The judge reached the conclusion that the village leader had killed Ubom by administering a toxic substance via syringe into the victim’s buttock on Friday.
According to the court’s decision, the king left the hamlet in 2017 before coming back in 2019 and being captured by police after “seeing the effects of his unlawful activity.”
The accused voluntarily admitted that he visited the Efen Clan Council with five other village heads and members of the Clan Council to try the deceased on the charge of witchcraft, which relieved the prosecution of the burden of demonstrating the offense of conspiracy.
The Efen Clan Council’s decision to administer the oath on the deceased and the admission of the trial procedure have led logically to the conclusion that the late Ubom’s death was brought on by the village chief injecting a chemical into his buttocks and giving him a plastic bath on his head.
As a result, the Village Head received three prison sentences: three years for conspiring with those who are still at large, death by hanging for the murder, and seven years in prison with hard labor.
Before the guilty village head received a sentence, he pleaded the court for mercy.
Odiong, who had 12 wives and 60 kids, was given the death penalty for the murder of Ubom in the Efen Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
He was tried for four counts of conspiracy, including arranging a false trial through torture, taking a motorcycle, and murdering the owner and a local.
Following accusations from his brothers that he was a wizard, the late Ubom was hauled before the Efen Clan Council. The decedent was required to declare under oath that he was not a magician.
