A High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday sentenced the general overseer of the Altar of Solution and Healing Assembly, Mr. Chidiebere Okoroafor to death by hanging for murder.
The convict was tried for killing his choir mistress, Orlunma Nwagba, whom he allegedly impregnated.
He was also sentenced for the killing of Nwagba’s friend, Chigozie Ezenwa and her eleven-month-old daughter, Cresabel, on December 11, 2017, in Oyigbo local government area of the state.
The trial judge, S.O. Benson, said the evidence and confessional statements from the pastor showed that he committed the crimes.
He said the prosecution proved the case of murder against the cleric and ordered that he should be killed by hanging until he is dead or should be injected with a lethal substance that kills faster.
It was gathered that Nwagba, in the company of the other deceased persons, had visited the pastor’s house in Oyigbo for a discussion on the pregnancy when he tricked them into a bush and allegedly murdered them at two different locations.
Men of the Rivers State Police Command arrested the pastor on December 17, 2017 following an alarm raised by Ezenwa’s husband about the killing of the three persons.
Reacting to the judgement, prosecution counsel from the state ministry of justice, Precious Ordu and Antonia Osademe, representing the International Federation of Female Lawyers in the murder trial said it is “justice well served.”
“Justice has been served to the state, the complainant and the convict. This will serve as a deterrent to all those who intend to commit the same offence because it is justice for all,” Ordu said.
However, counsel for the convict, Mr. Innocent Ekwu, said there were reasonable grounds to appeal against the judgment served on his client.
In an interview with journalists outside the courtroom, Ekwu, said: We, as counsel for the defendant, have decided to appeal the case. We are going to file our notice of appeal as quickly as possible because we have grounds on which we believe that the defendant did not commit the offence.”
