State High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Monday, sentenced a woman, Mrs. Agnes Nwefuru, to death by hanging for killing her co-wife and seven children in Ebonyi state.

The plaintiff, Ebonyi State Government had in a suit no. HAW/13C/2017, brought against the defendant, Agnes Nwefuru, accused her of setting ablaze the house of her co-wife, Felicia Nwefuru, which took her life and the lives of her seven children.

The plaintiff maintained that the accused also burnt her own house during the evil act as a camouflage.

According to the plaintiff, the accused removed all her belongings and that of her children and took them to a safe place outside the house before committing the act.

In 2017, eight members of a family were burnt to death following a strange fire that engulfed their residential house around 3a.m. at Ogboji community, in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Two persons survived the inferno: the husband, Mr. Sylvanus Nwefuru and Miss Ukamaka Nwefuru, one of Felicia’s daughters.

The fire razed the two hatched houses in the compound.

Delivering the judgement, the presiding judge, Justice Uwabunkonye Onwosi, declared that the plaintiff proved that the defendant was guilty of the murder charge preferred against her.

“Nwefuru Agnes is found guilty of murder, and is hereby convicted. The term of her sentence is that she be hanged by the neck until she is dead,” the judge ruled. (Vanguard)