Television Nigerian

A judge in the Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo, the state capital, has sentenced one Effiong Philip, a 39-year-old bricklayer from Mbiakpan Atan in the Ibiono Ibom Local Government Council, to life in jail for murdering his 68-year-old father.

According to the presiding judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, the offender beat his father to death over the accusation that he was a wizard and was to blame for his wife’s inability to conceive.

In a charge of murder filed by the State against Monday Effiong Philip, the prosecution stated that the defendant “delivered fist blows to his father and pushed him, whereupon he is reported to have fallen down” on May 27, 2017, in response to his wife’s complaint against her father-in-law.

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Even when a neighbor moved the victim into his room, the convict shut the door to his father’s room and returned the next day with a patent medicine salesman, only to find his father dead in the room, according to the prosecution.

In an hour-long ruling, Justice Nkanang held that the convict’s invitation of the patent medicine merchant showed that, despite the unreasonable and unlawful assault on his father, he had no intention of killing him and had no knowledge that death would be a likely result of his actions.

“Whereas the accused person’s deed resulted in the deceased’s death, the six circumstances set out in section 3, 2, 3 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Akwa Ibom State, which define what constitutes murder, appear to be absent in the full scenario of the case,” the court said.

“The Court’s position, on the extent to which evidence at trial has established the three ingredients of murder, is that the deceased is dead and the accused person’s act is responsible for the death, but there is insufficient evidence to prove the third mandatory ingredient in a charge of murder,” Justice Nkanang added.

The Court stated, “The position of the law is that the particulars of the smaller offense must be capable of being subsumed in the original accusation, such that the lower offense may be cut out from the particulars of the original charge, which was murder.”

“It is this statute that equips the trial court with the power to convict for a lower violation, when the ingredients of the said lesser offense are contained in the aggravated charge and found proved,” Justice Nkanang explained.

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The court ruled in favor of the prosecution and found Monday Effiong Akpan guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him to life in prison.

The offender, who is a father of one, begged with the Court for leniency, claiming that he is his father’s only child.

The case against a Danish man, Peter Nielsen, accused of killing his Nigerian wife and daughter will be heard by the Lagos High Court on May 6 at Tafawa Balewa Square.

After the lawyers in the case adopted their final written addresses, Justice Bolanle Okikiolu-Ighile set the date.

The state has charged the defendant with two counts of murder in violation of Section 223 of the Lagos Criminal Laws of 2015.

The state claims that the defendant, who is 53 years old, murdered his Nigerian singer wife, Zainab, also known as Alizee, and his daughter on April 5, 2018, about 3.45 a.m. at their Banana Island home in Lagos’ Ikoyi neighborhood.

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The foreigner, on the other hand, entered a not guilty plea to the charge.

The defence lawyer, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olasupo Shasore, moved the last written statement during the case’s resumed hearing on Tuesday, asking the court to acquit and dismiss his client.

Shasore filed two problems for the court’s consideration, one of which he claims concerns the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

He highlighted a court decision dated July 19, 2021, in which the judge denied an appeal to have Peter Nielsen, the man suspected of killing his Nigerian wife and daughter, removed from the murder trial.

Shasore had asked the court for the production of an exhibit, the nightgown the deceased wore the night she was killed, in that application. He requested that the exhibit be made available for DNA testing.

Shasore further claimed that he had requested a search of the court’s records, but that the exhibit could not be retrieved owing to the court’s burning on October 21, 2020, during the #ENDSARS saga.

He argued at the time that because the exhibit was missing, the defendant would not receive substantial justice in the absence of the exhibit.

“We had no idea that exhibit PWN would not be found when we submitted our application.” The defendant’s constitutional rights have been violated in the absence of exhibit PWN. “In addition, the court has been denied the opportunity to analyze PWN,” the SAN added.

“The DNA analysis was generated from this PWN, which is the nightgown the deceased was wearing at the time of her death. “In his testimony, the prosecution’s expert witness relied his whole evidence on PWN,” Shasore added.

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The submission, albeit clever, was deemed premature by Justice Okikiolu-Ighile.

The judge ruled that both the prosecution and the defense had called witnesses and presented exhibits that were not based on the exhibit in question.

“As a result, when all of the information has been presented and final written addresses have been accepted, the court will examine the totality of all of the material before it.”

The judge ruled that “the submission of the learned silk is premature,” and that “the application sought and the concomitant remedies are hereby dismissed.”

The SAN remarked that the presumption that there was an eye witness, the second objection presented by the defense counsel, was a critical point.

“We submit that there was no eye witness,” he added. “The so-called eye witness indicated she was behind the children’s door, which is nearly impossible to see the Master’s bedroom from behind the children’s door.”

“We encourage your Lordship to consider all of the defense’s submissions on all of the state’s evidence that was not produced, as well as the DNA testing that was obtained but not produced.”

He insisted, “We have a reasonable doubt in favor of the defendant’s innocence.”

“I encourage the court to accept our position, and your Lordship should acquit and dismiss the offender after four years in custody so that he can properly mourn his wife and daughter.”

“We have reacted to all the issues brought by the defense, including the two points highlighted by the learned senior counsel, the eye witness PW6 and the circumstantial evidence placed before your Lordship,” Adebayo Haroun, the Lagos State Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, said in his response.

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“The prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Peter Nielsen killed Zainab Nielsen and Petra Nielsen on April 5, 2018.” “My Lordship, we have nothing further to add to the final written address; we urge your Lordship to find the defendant guilty as charged,” he said.

The court was then delayed until May 6.