An Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo, has sentenced one Destiny James Okon, a native of Ikot Andem Itam, Itu Local Government Area to death, for armed robbery.
Okon, 36, was found guilty of robbing Ubotex Warehouse in Ifa Ikot Okpon, Uyo on December 15, 2015.
The presiding judge, Justice Archibong Archibong, in his judgment, pronounced that ‘Okon shall die in a manner to be directed by Akwa Ibom State Governor.’
The judge also discharged and acquitted two other accused persons, Ikechukwu Eme from Anambra State and Nwaigbo Kelechi, from Ebonyi State, who were standing trial on charges of conspiracy, armed robbery, and unlawful possession of firearms.
According to him, Okon had confessed to the police that Ikechukwu Eme, who is the second accused person, told him that he had a job to monitor when he took him to Ubotex Warehouse in broad daylight and posed as customers and returned at night to rob the warehouse.
He stated that one “Hausaman, Musa” called him on December 15, 2015 to help him to custody some Cameroon Zinc, which he accepted and took them to his father’s house in Okobo, Ibiono Ibom.
Okon had said Ikechukwu, whom he claimed dealt in buying scrap items, was invited to buy the Zinc but told “Musa” that he would not buy the items because they were not scrap, except “Musa” would provide receipts of the Zinc.
The first accused said since then, the so-called “Musa” has not come back until he was arrested on December 18, 2015.
In a judgement in the suit number HU/63C/ 2015, Justice Archibong held that “it is obvious that the acclaimed “Hausaman, Musa” is a fictitious person manufactured by the accused persons with the aim of misleading the Police in the course of investigation.”
He also described the statement of the first accused as a way to deceive the court into considering that someone else committed the offense of armed robbery or that the first accused person did not participate in the robbery.
Justice Archibong said “from the totality of the evidence in this case, I can deduce that Musa is a fiction of the imagination of the accused persons.
“You are hereby sentenced to death. You shall die in a manner to be directed by Akwa Ibom State Governor. May God have mercy on your soul.”