About three years after legal framework, the Chief Judge of Ebonyi State, Justice Elvis Ngene has discharged and acquitted a man accused of killing his stepfather.
The court noted that the defendant, Uchechukwu Nwuguru, was set free because the prosecution team failed “woefully” to tender substantial evidence before it to prove the murder charge.
Nwuguru was accused of killing Mr. Sabinus Chita Nwuguru by smashing his head with an iron rod while he was laying outside his house at Ndiofutu Edda in Abakaliki Local Government Area of the state to receive fresh air on March 31, 2017.
The accused person was said to have committed murder contrary to section 319(1) of the criminal code cap 33, Volume 1, Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria 2009.
However, having considered the merits of the matter and evidence before the court, the Chief Judge discharged the defendant for the inability of the prosecuting team to prove the case of murder beyond reasonable doubts.
Delivering his judgement, Ngene posited that aside from the purported confession of the defendant, there was no shred or iota of evidence to show that the defendant indeed killed or murdered the deceased Sabinus Chita Nwuguru.
“Consequently, I find that the prosecution failed woefully to prove the suit beyond reasonable doubt as required by law, and accordingly I find the defendant, Uchechukwu Nwuguru not guilty of the alleged murder charge leveled against him. In the circumstance, I return a negative answer to issue number one and accordingly acquit and discharge the defendant.
“On issue number two, that is, whether the defence of insanity avails a defendant who neither pleaded insanity at the trial nor led any evidence that could establish the same. I had while determining issue number one found the defendant not guilty for the reason adduced therein, equally discharged and acquitted him,” the judge ruled.
