Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Etinan, local government area has sentenced one Moses Abdon Edo to death by hanging for killing his father, late Abdon Peter Edo, over a landed property.
While delivering his judgement yesterday, the trial judge, Justice Ezekiel Enang noted that the convict had confessed on the date of the incident, that he came from where he lived and chased his father to the backyard, caught him and slammed his head on the wall and he died on the spot.
The Court therefore held that by smashing his father’s head on the wall the 37-year-old man from Ikot Ukobo in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area intended to kill him.
In the judgement that lasted for about an hour, the Court also held that the convict, had confessed in his extrajudicial statement that he single-handedly killed his father in a broad daylight of 29th July, 2015 in Ikot Ukobo, Nsit Ubium LGA.
The Court further held that once a confessional statement is positive, direct and unequivocal of fact, it is sufficient to secure conviction of the accused even without the evidence being corroborated.
It added that in a charge of murder, what the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt, are the ingredients of the offence that the deceased died and that the death was caused by the act of the accused with an intention to kill or cause him grievous bodily harm.
The Court found Moses Edo guilty of murder and ordered that he should be hung to death or lethal substance injected inside him until he is dead.
“The confessional statement of the accused was corroborated by his direct confession to his sister in Court and his confession to the Investigating Police Officer.
“I hereby find the defendant, Moses Abdon Edo guilty of murder as charged. The judgment of this Court is that you be hang by the neck until you be dead or by lethal injection.” The Court held.
