COURTROOM NEWS 05/03/2022
Alleged Ritual Killer Turns Singer In Court As Witnesses Testify
Moses Okoh, a 20-year-old student of the University of Jos standing trial in a High Court in Jos for allegedly killing his girlfriend, suddenly turned a singer as he sang in court, as witnesses testified against him.
The drama exhibited by Okoh, who was accused of killing Jennifer Anthony, a 300 level student of the institution, shocked the court as he was being questioned while in the dock. Instead of answering the questions thrown to him, he resorted to singing a gospel song and after that went mute, acting in an abnormal way.
The police accused Okoh of committing the offence on December 31, 2021 when he allegedly killed Anthony and removed her eyes and other human parts.
During trial, a witness, Mr Akubo Lazarus of Busa Buji, Jos, a receptionist at the Domus Pacis Hotel, Jos, told the court that he received the accused person as a guest in the hotel on December 31, 2021 and lodged him in Room 302.
“The defendant, who checked in as Moses Oche, came to our hotel at about 4 pm on December 31. He came alone but the late Jennifer joined him a few hours later and he hurriedly came downstairs and took her to the room. I closed for the day and went home and returned on January 1st for my morning shift. The accused at about noon came to me to check out and I left him at the reception to check the room for any damages.
“On getting to the room, I met the lifeless body of a female on the floor in a pool of her own blood. I raised the alarm but he had already absconded from the premises,” he said.
Another witness, Mrs Elizabeth Dung, a kitchen attendant at the Domus Pacis Hotel, told the court that she served the defendant two plates of food and cutlery set on the said date of the murder.
She said: “I was in the kitchen when the defendant came to me and asked for two plates of food. I took the food to him with two spoons and two forks.
“I know all the cutlery in the kitchen, having worked there for a long time. The fork shown to me in the court now is the same one I served him that day.
“I recognise the accused person as the same person I served food on December 31 and the fork is the same one I served him. But it was not bent and it did not have bloodstains when I served him.”