Delta man sentenced to death for killing twins for ritual

• The court also sentenced one Nwanozie Uzor to 14 years imprisonment for murder and conspiracy to commit the murder.

In Delta State, one Onuwa Ijie has been sentenced to death over the murder of twin boys, Chidalu and Chigozie Agwunobi.

He was convicted and sentenced by a High Court sitting at Asaba, the State capital.

The court presided over by Justice Onome Marshal-Umukoro also sentenced one Nwanozie Uzor to 14 years imprisonment for murder and conspiracy to commit the murder.

To prove her case, the prosecution conducted by a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Justice, Mrs Paula Akpoguma, called five witnesses.

The court held that the testimony of the five witnesses proved that the two defendants truly killed the seven-year-olds boys.

The prosecution told the court that tragedy struck the family of Olise Agwunobi of Oko-Ogbele Community on March 5, 2020, when their seven-year-old twin boys were lured by the defendants to a bush and they proceeded to cut off their penis, eyes, tongues and hands which they hurriedly took to a native doctor at Aguleri in Anambra State.

“One of the defendants had earlier gone to the school of the twin children to take them but was turned down by the school teacher, one Mrs Emelda Ezekwude,” she said.

Delivering his judgment, Justice Marshal-Umukoro stated that after carefully evaluating the evidence presented before him, the prosecution had discharged the burden of proof as the first defendant from his confessional statement was the person who sowed the seed of committing human rituals in the mind of the second defendant by giving the phone number of one Chukwudi Edemuzor who was alleged to be searching for twins to kill for money.

The court maintained that the law is settled that the testimony of an investigating police officer was not hearsay evidence, and the court can rely on it.

Speaking with journalists after the judgment on Tuesday, the prosecuting counsel, Akpoguma thanked the court for upholding the cause of justice, “reaffirming that the judicial system works.”