NIGERIA: COURT SENTENCES STUDENT TO DEATH BY HANGING

October 11, 2012: In Nigeria, the Delta State High Court sitting in Warri sentenced to death by hanging a National Diploma (ND II) student of the Federal Polytechnic, after being found guilty of a four-count charge preferred against him.
The convict had been on trial for over a decade for stabbing a colleague to death over “minor differences.”
Simply identified as Eto (surname withheld), the persecution said the convict committed the offence June 12, 2000 in company of two others who were freed by the court for lack of evidence.
They were tried for storming their victim’s residence located opposite Isoko South Local Government Secretariat and forcefully demanding for a pair of canvass shoes allegedly kept in the deceased’s custody.
According to the persecution, Eto had been wearing his elder brother’s clothes and shoes without his consent, an act that led him to keeping the shoes in the victim’s custody for safety and to prevent his brother from getting access to them.
Unfortunately for his victim, his refusal to release the shoes caused a row on the fateful day between Eto and the deceased before neighbours intervenedand settled the matter. But Eto, the court heard staged a comeback in the evening where he took undue advantage of his victim named Julius when he was having his bath.
The convict stabbed him severally with a broken bottle in different parts of his body, whichled to Julius death at Oleh General Hospital where he was rushed to for treatment.
The trial judge, Justice Marshall Mukoro, found Eto guilty of the charge of murder and sentenced him to death by hanging, while the second and third accused persons Samson Edorth and Akpoghene Edeno were discharged for lack of substantial evidence. (Sources: leadership.ng, 14/10/2012)