26-yr-old to hang for robbery, rape

FOR robbing a couple at gunpoint
and raping their teenage daughter, a Delta
High Court sitting in Warri, yesterday,
sentenced a 26-year-old furniture maker,
Chijioke Ede, to death by hanging. The condemned armed robber and rapist
was arraigned on a three-count charge of
conspiracy to commit armed robbery,
armed robbery and rape before the court
presided over by Justice Marshall Mukoro. He was found guilty on all the charges and
sentenced to death on count one and two,
while he got life imprisonment on the
charge of rape. Prosecution from Delta State Ministry of
Justice had told the court that Chijioke,
from Enugu State, with another person still
at large, on or about October 12, 2009, at
Okoro Street, Warri, off Marine Gate, within
the Warri Judicial Division, robbed his victims of a DVD player, a laptop computer,
cash, jewelries and other valuables at
gunpoint and also raped their teenage
daughter. The convict was arrested by the vigilante
group in the area as his gang made to
escape with their loot. Justice Mukoro held: “With the avalanche of
facts and evidences before this court, for
the accused to say he was not involved in
the crime is laughable and an afterthought. “For the court to hold the evidence of the
accused will amount to denial of justice,
thereby bringing the bar and the bench to
disrepute. “I hereby uphold the evidence of
prosecution as all the ingredients of the
offence have been proved beyond
reasonable doubt and sentence the accused
to death by hanging on count one and two.”