The High Court sitting in Akwa Ibom State has sentenced a pastor of Living Faith Church Worldwide, popularly called Winners Chapel, Prince Emmanuel, to death for killing a final-year engineering student of the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State.
In the judgment delivered after five years of litigation, the cleric, who was a tenant of the deceased student, Gabriel Edward, was found guilty of perpetrating the act inside his church in Atakpa Ifa Ikot Ubo Etoi in Ikot Okpon, Uyo, the state capital.
While delivering the judgement on Thursday, Justice Gabriel Ette declared that evidence proved that the cleric was the last person to see the former student before death in December 2020 in Uyo.
The court held that the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, relying on witness testimonies and evidence gathered during police investigations.
In his ruling, Justice Ette held that the evidence was compelling and consistent, and that it pointed to the guilt of the accused and sentenced him to death by hanging, in line with the penalty prescribed for murder under Nigerian law.
Earlier, evidence presented during the trial showed that the deceased had rented part of his residence in Ikot Okpon, Uyo, to the defendant, who used the space as a church parish.
Witnesses told the court they heard distressing screams from the premises on the day of the incident, a claim dismissed by the cleric as noise during a prayer session.
Some neighbours testified that they saw the defendant fetching water with buckets that were already allegedly stained with blood.
When questioned at the time, he reportedly claimed he had been praying, but it was learnt that investigators searched the defendant’s residence and recovered items that belonged to the deceased.
The prosecution argued that the defendant was the last person seen with Gabriel and that the totality of the evidence linked him directly to the killing.
