The Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo has sentenced a dismissed soldier with the Nigerian Army, 6 Battalion, Ibagwa in Abak, Corporal Stephen Iweh, to death by hanging for the murder of a 42-year-old man, Christopher Enobong Jimmy.
The incident occurred on May 23, 2021, on East-West Road in Ikot Abasi local government area of the state.
The late Jimmy, a manager of a Clearing and Forwarding Company in Port Harcourt, had offered Corporal Iweh a lift in his car from Trailer Park in Onne, Rivers state, to Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom.
Along the way, at Oboro Junction in Ikot Abasi, the 39-year-old soldier shot him dead before fleeing with the vehicle and valuables.
Investigations revealed that Corporal Iweh, a father of three children, had illegally kept the AK-47 rifle which he said he “picked at Dambou, Borno state, in 2018, and decided to keep it as personal arms.”
On that fateful day, Corporal Iweh was supposed to be on duty at the Army Stores, 6 Battalion, Ibagwa, Abak, but abandoned his post to commit the crime.
He was later traced to Andy Guest House in Ukanafun, many kilometres away from the scene of the crime, where he was arrested and the rifle recovered.
In a judgement, the trial judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Corporal Iweh, a native of Ameke Nkor in Ngor Okpala local government area of Imo state, murdered Christopher Enobong Jimmy, an indigene of Ikot Abasi, and robbed him of his Toyota Matrix car, while armed with an AK-47 rifle.
Justice Nkanang convicted him on a three-count charge.
He was sentenced to death by hanging for murder, death by hanging for armed robbery, and 10 years in prison for unlawful possession of firearms.
In his plea for mercy, the convict begged the court for what he described as a “soft landing,” but his allocutus was rejected.
The late Christopher Jimmy is survived by his 34-year-old widow, Arit, who tearfully recounted that her husband had left Port Harcourt to visit his sister and family in Ikot Abasi, but did not return home.
