A High Court sitting in OgwashiUku in Delta state, has sentenced a 25-year-old farmer, Ikechukwu Nwodomo, to 10 years in prison for manslaughter. Nwodomo was charged to court alongside Chinenye Nwangelle (Stepmother of the deceased) on the count of conspiracy and murder of one 17-year-old Chibueze Ogbonna Nwangelle. Nwodomo was accordingly convicted of manslaughter under Section 325 of the CriminaCode and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Th e court, however, found the stepmother of the deceased not guilty of the two- count charge and was accordingly discharged and acquitted.
Delivering his verdict, the trial Judge, Honourable Justice K. O. Okpu, described the first accused person who gave various contradictory accounts of what transpired in his voluntary statement to the police and during his defence in court, as “not a witness of truth” and that his evidence being contradictory could not be relied upon.
Th e judge, who gave a lesser off ence of manslaughter, held that prosecution proved that the accused person killed the deceased as regard actus rea (physical fact) but could not establish mens rea (intention) against him. The prosecutor from the Ministry of Justice, R. O. Okonyia, (Mrs.) Principal State Counsel, through prosecution witnesses, had told the court that “on the 8th day of July, 2015, at Isah-Ogwashi-Uku village at Blessed Utomi Farms, within the Ogwashi-Uku Judicial Division, Chinenye Nwangelle, stepmother and her step son, Chibueze Ogbonna Nwangelle had a physical altercation which drew the attention of their neighbour, the first accused person, in the course of the altercation which ensued between the accused persons and the deceased.
The first accused, according to eyewitness testimony, grabbed the deceased by the neck from behind and fell backward with him, which broke his neck and he fell unconscious. All attempts to revive him with water and keeping him near fire failed. He was later confirmed dead at the Ubulu-Uku General Hospital.
