An Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo has sentenced a dismissed soldier, Corporal Stephen Iweh, of the Nigerian Army’s 6 Battalion, Ibagwa in Abak, to death by hanging for the murder of a traveller who had offered him a lift.

Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Bassey Nkanang held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Iweh, 39, murdered Christopher Enobong Jimmy, 42, and robbed him of his Toyota Matrix car while armed with an unauthorized AK-47 rifle.

The incident occurred on May 23, 2021, along the East-West Road in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area. Jimmy, a manager with a clearing and forwarding company in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had given Iweh a free ride from Trailer Park, Onne, Rivers State, to Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom.

Court records showed that at Oboro Junction, Ikot Abasi, the soldier—armed with an AK-47 rifle he had illegally kept since picking it up in Dambou, Borno State, in 2018—shot Jimmy in the head before fleeing with his vehicle and other valuables.

Investigations revealed that Iweh, a father of three recruited into the Nigerian Army in 2002, had abandoned his duty post at the Army Store in Abak to carry out the crime. He was later tracked to Andy Guest House in Ukanafun, where he was arrested and the rifle recovered.

Jimmy, who was driving his grey Toyota Matrix, had innocently offered the soldier—dressed in full military uniform—a lift. They reportedly stopped at Oboro Junction to eat and rest when the soldier struck, killing him instantly.

Justice Nkanang convicted Iweh on a three-count charge and sentenced him to:

Death by hanging for murder.

Death by hanging for armed robbery.

10 years imprisonment for unlawful possession of firearms.

The convict’s plea for leniency was rejected, as the victim’s widow, Arit Jimmy, 34, wept in court while recounting how her husband had left Port Harcourt to visit his sister and never returned home. (Saturday Vanguard)