Court sentences woman to die by hanging for luring victim to death with false job offer
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
After more than two years of court trial, one Chiamaka Ifezue has been sentenced to death by hanging for murdering another woman, Ijeoma Nneke aged 27, after she and her accomplice forced the deceased to drink a poisonous substance.
Justice K.I. Okpe of the Enugu High Court gave the judgment in the case involving
Chiamaka and her brother Chukwuemeka, both of whom were arraigned in 2021 on two counts of conspiracy and murder that took place on 11 November 2020.
Nneke, a makeup artist, left home on the fateful day for a job but went missing afterwards.
Her supposed client, having refused to disclose the location for the job, asked her to stop at Enugu State Broadcasting Service bus stop, where she would be taken to the venue by a taxi driver.
Chiamaka and Chukwuemeka were later accused of forcing Nneke to drink a poisonous substance that caused her death.
The court was told they dumped her body at the Maryland area of Enugu metropolis and poured on her body a corrosive substance suspected to be acid.
However, the Judge discharged Chukwuemeka of the crime, following a no-case submission pleaded by defence counsel Chuma Oguejiofor.
The court held there was no evidence he actually participated in the commission of the crime.
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Case against Chiamaka proved beyond reasonable doubt, court rules
The court ruled the prosecution proved the case of murder against Chiamaka beyond every reasonable doubt, according to reporting by The PUNCH.
Okpe agreed with the submissions of Chinelo Chigbo, who led the prosecution from the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP), that Chiamaka was responsible for the death of Nneke.
The court found her guilty of murder and sentenced her to death by hanging.
Chigbo had led Prosecution Witness 7 (PW7), Udeze Oguguo, a police Sergeant, in evidence to tender exhibits he said were recovered from the crime scene.
The exhibits included:
- Five pieces of 20 British pounds sterling
- an iPhone 7plus with MTN SIM card
- Another iPhone device
- A Blackberry phone
- A broken 9Mobile SIM card
- Itel phone
- A black phone (no brand name)
- MTN SIM pack
- Makeup tools belonging to Nneke
- WhatsApp and text messages Nneke had with her fiancé and female friend while at the scene of the crime
- The key of a Toyota Metrix Scan with registration number JJJ410BJ used to convey Nneke’s body from the scene of the crime to where it was dumped.
Oguguo told the court the car, which was parked at the Police Anti-kidnap Formation, was no longer in a good condition to be driven to the court.
