Court sentences pastor to d*ath for k*lling choir mistress in Rivers

A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has sentenced a pastor identified as Chidiebere Okoroafor, to death by hanging for murder.

Okoroafor, who is the General Overseer of the Altar of Solution and Healing Assembly based in Oyigbo, Rivers State, was placed on trial for killing his choir mistress, Orlunma Nwagba.

The convict was said to have killed Nwagba after he allegedly impregnated her.

Aside from the killing of his church choir mistress, Okoroafor similarly faced murder charges for the killing of Nwagba’s friend, Chigozie Ezenwa, and her eleven-month-old daughter, Cresabel.

The cleric was said to have killed Ezenwaa and Cresabel on December 11, 2017, in the Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The trial judge, S.O. Benson said the evidence and confessional statements from the pastor showed that he committed the crimes.

Justice Benson added that the prosecution proved the case of murder against the cleric and ordered that he should be killed by hanging him by the neck until he is dead or should be injected with a lethal injection which also kills faster.

It was gathered that the women had visited the pastor’s house in Oyigbo for a discussion on the said pregnancy when he tricked them into a bush and committed the act in two different locations.

Following an alarm by Ezenwa’s husband over the gruesome killing of the trio, men of the Rivers State Police Command, on December 17, 2017, arrested Okoroafor.

Addressing journalists outside the courtroom, the prosecution counsel from the state Ministry of Justice, Precious Ordu expressed happiness over the judgment.

He, however, maintained that it will serve as a deterrent to all those who intend to commit the same offence in Rivers State.