Robbery: Akwa Ibom Judge Sentences Man to Death, Asks Gov to Decide Method

A High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, presided over by Justice Archibong Archibong has sentenced a 36-year-old man, Destiny Okon, to death for armed robbery.

Okon, who hailed from Ikot Andem Itam in the Itu Local Government Area of the state, was sentenced after he was found guilty of robbing the Ubotex warehouse in Ifa, Ikot Ukpon, Uyo, on December 15, 2015.

In a two-hour judgement delivered on Tuesday, Justice Archibong, however, discharged and acquitted two other accused persons, 40-year-old Ikechukwu Eme, and Nwaigbo Kelechi, 36, of the charges.

The trio were standing trial on three counts of conspiracy, armed robbery and unlawful possession of firearms.

Okon had confessed to the police that the second accused person, Eme, told him that he had a job to monitor when he took him to Ubotex warehouse in broad daylight and posed as a customer, but returned at night to rob the warehouse.

He claimed that one Musa called him on December 15, 2015, to assist him to keep some Cameroon zinc, which he accepted and took to his father’s house in Okobo, Ibiono Ibom.

The convict said Eme, who dealt in scrap items, was invited to buy the zinc, but he (Eme) told Musa that he would not buy the items because they were not scrap, except Musa would provide some receipts.

The first accused said since then, Musa had not come back until he (Okon) was arrested on December 18, 2015.

In suit number HU/63C/ 2015, Justice Archibong held that “it is obvious that the acclaimed ‘Musa’ is a fictitious person manufactured by the accused person with the aim of misleading the police in the course of investigation.”

He also described it “as a ploy to deceive this court into considering that someone else committed the offence of armed robbery or that the first accused person did not participate in the robbery.”

The court further held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

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 person. You are hereby sentenced to death. You shall die in a manner to be directed by the Akwa Ibom State Governor. May God have mercy on your soul.”