A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has sentenced twin brothers and five other persons to death by hanging over the abduction and killing of a cleric, Rev. Edwin Dokubo-Harry.
The convicts were found guilty of their involvement in the 2013 kidnapping and murder of the cleric in Abalama community, Asari-Toru Local Government Area of the state.
Delivering judgment in the case, Justice Boma Diepiri ruled that the prosecution successfully established charges bordering on conspiracy, kidnapping, murder, unlawful possession of firearms, and related offences against the seven defendants.
Those sentenced to death are Precious Jack Opera, Answer Dick, Osaki Fubara, Prince Mikado Philip, Tienabeso George, Seleipri Fubara, and Alaboeriya Fubara.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted two other defendants, Emmanuel Israel and Nephew Philemon, after holding that the prosecution failed to prove the 25-count charges filed against them.
According to details presented before the court, the convicts, alongside other suspects still at large, lured Rev. Dokubo-Harry into a forest in the Abalama community on December 6, 2013, where he was abducted, blindfolded, and restrained.
The court heard that the cleric later died in captivity, while his body was subsequently dumped in a creek within the community.
Justice Diepiri thereafter sentenced the seven convicts to death by hanging, directing that they “be hanged by the neck until confirmed dead.”
The judge also ordered that firearms and other exhibits recovered during investigations be released to the Nigeria Police.
Shortly after the judgment was delivered, emotions reportedly ran high in the courtroom as some of the convicts and their relatives broke down in tears.