Life may be hard but it is also sweet; little wonder why, as late reggae star Peter Tosh once sang, “everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.”

That saying has been once more proved true in the case of the convicted General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Rev. Dr. King (real name Chukwuemeka Ezeugo).

Information from his lawyer, Barrister Olalekan Ojo, yesterday confirmed that the controversial Lagos-based cleric has taken his taken his case to the Supreme Court, praying it to reverse the death sentence passed on him by a Lagos High Court in Ikeja on January 11, 2007.

On February 1 this year, a Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, upheld the death sentence, affirming that King should die by hanging for the murder of Ann Uzoh, one his church members, and attempted murder of five other followers.

King has been in jail for over six years. He was arrested and charged to court on September 26, 2006 on six counts of attempted murder and murder, after reportedly pouring petrol on six adherents for an offence for “acts of fornication,” and set them ablaze. One of them, Ann Uzoh, died on August 2, 2006, 11 days after the incident, as a result of the injuries she sustained in the process.

Ezeugo’s lawyer told newsmen yesterday in Lagos that he has since filed a five-ground notice against the Appeal Court’s refusal to reverse the death sentence. He disclosed that the compilation of records of appeal is currently ongoing at the Court of Appeal in Lagos.

Ojo’s argument, according to a PM News report, is that “the appellate court was wrong and erred in law in refusing the convict’s application to call additional witness to tender reports of forensic experts to show that petrol being highly inflammable in nature, there’s no way the man who ignited the matches that burnt the deceased to death will not have been affected by the light since the deceased was said to have been soaked in petrol.

“He furthered argued that the appellate court said in its judgment that the report of the forensic experts was supposed to have been tended at the trial court.

“On another ground filed by Ojo, he said it was wrong not to have treated the statement of the deceased which was that Rev. King did not pour the petrol on her neither did he ignite the matches rather the burn she suffered was from the generator explosion.

“He said the deceased made three statements before she died.”

According to Ojo, “In one of the statements marked exhibit C4, the deceased said Rev King was not responsible for her predicament. Therefore the Appeal Court hearing should have been in favour of Rev. King as a statement of dying declaration but the court ruled otherwise.”

News Express reports that Rev. King’s church continues to thrive and that the members have often expressed confidence that he would eventually regain his freedom.

•Photo shows Rev. Dr. King.

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