24-yr-old man sentenced to death by hanging for killing 8-yr-old boy

isaac dachen

December 1, 2016 12:55 PM

A high court sitting in Lagos State has sentenced a 24-year-old man to death for allegedly killing an 8-year-old boy after he had kidnapped him.

An Ikeja High Court sitting in Lagos State has sentenced a 24-year-old man,

New Telegraph reports that Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye who delivered the verdict, noted that the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt the death of a human being and the act of death caused by the intention of the convict.

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Onyeka, an aluminum fabricator who had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charge, was convicted on a one-count charge of murder slammed against him by the state government.

It was gathered that the convict who is a native of Achalla village in Anambra State, murdered the young boy on January 12, 2013, at plot 14, 3rd Avenue, Mulmaco Estate.

According to the charge sheet presented in court, Onyeka did murder the boy by strangulating him to death and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The convict who lived in the same neighbourhood with the deceased had allegedly lured the boy on a Saturday morning behind his backyard in a bid to kidnap him and ask for ransom from his parents.

While the kidnap appeared to be turning successful, the convict immediately realized that the boy would identify him and probably tell the police the person who abducted him when finally released.

In order not to be caught, Onyeka thereafter decided to strangle the boy to bury the secret and avoid any suspicion or aftermath information that would point to him.

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After killing the boy, Onyeka was said to have carried the body in a sack and buried it in an empty septic tank inside an uncompleted building within the estate and thereafter proceeded to ask for a N5 million ransom from the boy’s father.

But he nailed himself by writing a ransom note and included his phone number and bank account and delivered it discreetly to the boy’s father’s residence.

isaac dachen