NIGERIA: SUPREME COURT FREES MAN-EATER 15 YEARS LATER

March 2, 2012: In Nigeria, fifteen years after he was sentenced to death by hanging, Edet Obeten Mbang walked home a free man.
In a short judgment delivered by Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the Supreme Court discharged and acquitted him of complicity in the October 7, 1989 murder of one Baba Okoi.
The panel agreed with the appellant's counsel, Adekunle Oresanya, that Mbang was not guilty of the offence as charged even when he participated in the eating of the human meat of the deceased.
A Cross-River State High Court, Ugep Division, convicted Mbang and three others on June 19, 1997. The other convicts are Obeten Leko Essien, Mbang Efoli Mbang and Fidelis Onen Obeten.
The Prosecutor said Okoi was killed on October 7, 1989 and his 'human meat' was 'butchered' and 'shared' by the appellant and his 'co-accused persons.'
He described the appellant and his co-accused as members of Enyim Society, whose purpose is to kill human beings, share and eat their meat.
According to the prosecution, all the accused and the deceased attended a funeral ceremony on the day of the murder where the Enyim War Dance, otherwise called 'Kojo' dance was performed. (Sources: allafrica.com, 03/03/2012)