By Edem Ekpo
The Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo has sentenced a dismissed soldier, Corporal Stephen Iweh, formerly of the Nigerian Army’s 6 Battalion, Ibagwa, Abak, to death by hanging for the murder of a 42-year-old businessman, Mr. Christopher Enobong Jimmy.
The tragic incident occurred on May 23, 2021, along the East-West Road in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area. Jimmy, who managed a clearing and forwarding company in Port Harcourt, had offered the soldier a lift from the Trailer Park in Onne, Rivers State, to Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom.
Along the journey, at Oboro Junction, Iweh, who was in full military uniform, fatally shot Jimmy before fleeing with his Toyota Matrix car and other valuables. Investigations later revealed that the soldier, a 39-year-old father of three, had been in unlawful possession of an AK-47 rifle he admitted to picking up in Dambou, Borno State, in 2018 and keeping as his personal weapon.
He was eventually tracked down to Andy Guest House in Ukanafun, several kilometres from the crime scene, where he was arrested and the rifle recovered.
In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, held that the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that the ex-soldier murdered Jimmy, robbed him of his vehicle while armed with an AK-47 rifle, and unlawfully possessed the firearm without a licence.
Justice Nkanang convicted Iweh on a three-count charge, sentencing him to death by hanging for murder, death by hanging for armed robbery, and 10 years’ imprisonment for unlawful possession of firearms.
The convict, who joined the Nigerian Army in 2002 and hails from Ameke Nkor in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State, had pleaded for mercy, asking the court for what he called a “soft landing,” but his plea was rejected.
The late Christopher Jimmy is survived by his 34-year-old widow, Mrs. Arit Jimmy, who recounted tearfully that her husband had left Port Harcourt to visit his sister in Ikot Abasi but never returned.