Pastor Uduak Umoren and his brother, Emmanuel Umoren, were both given death sentences by the Akwa Ibom State High Court, which is located in the Essien Udim local government area, for fatally beating Iboro Joe over a plot of land.
When the deceased, a 45-year-old farmer and trader from Ikot Otu in Essien Udim LGA, went to see his sister-in-law in Adiasim Ikot Ekon, also in Essien Udim LGA, to express his condolences over the passing of her husband, he was attacked and beaten to death.
The deceased’s sister-in-law testified to the court that she had invited the deceased to accompany her to her late husband’s farmland to determine how much she could charge for his burial when the second convict’s wife observed them and informed her husband that someone was attempting to bury juju on their private property.
The second criminal began hitting the deceased as soon as he arrived on the farmland, according to the witness, and his wife later invited her son and her brother-in-law, who also joined the fight and attacked the victim with a machete and broken bottles.
The victim was beaten into a coma and brought to his family’s compound near the farm, where he succumbed to his injuries three days later.
The two defendants were found guilty of murder and given death by hanging by Justice Winifred Effiong, the case’s presiding judge, in her Wednesday ruling.
She claimed that the “prosecution team from the State Ministry of Justice had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, adding that the accused did intentionally kill the deceased.”