A 23-year-old student, Emmanuel Itoro Thomas, of Community Secondary School, Mbaise, in Imo State was on Thursday sentenced to five years in prison for involving in cultism.
The State High court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State established that the convict, an indigene of Uruk Uso in Obot Akara Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, belonged to an unlawful society known as, “Red Skin Secret Cult Confraternity.”
Delivering his judgement, Justice Okon held thus, “by the provision of Section 1 sub-section 2 of the Cultism, Offensive Weapons and Violent Behaviour Prohibition Law 2004 of Akwa Ibom State, any person who is a member of a cult whether or not, he is in possession of an offensive weapon, is guilty of an offense and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years without an option of fine.
“It is a trite Law that where a confessional statement of an accused is tendered in evidence without any objection, the statement will be deemed to have been made voluntarily and its content will be deemed to be true with no amount of subsequent argument against it, vitiating its admissibility.”
However, the accused, Emmanuel Thomas had confessed that he joined the secret cult in 2019 because of the problem his mother had with her landlady.
He further confessed that he was initiated on 29th February, 2019 in Ematan Street, off Eka Street, Uyo by one General, who is now at large.
The Court held that the prosecution from the State Ministry of Justice has proven its case beyond reasonable doubts and accordingly, sentenced the accused to five years in prison without an option of fine.