A Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, the Imo State capital, has
sentenced eight persons to death by hanging for their involvement in
the brutal murder of one Nze Dominic Ohamadiaku Duru, an ex-Police
officer from Izombe in Oguta Local Government Area of the state.
High Court 7, Owerri, presided over by Justice C.M.I. Egole, found
the accused guilty of murder, following an overwhelming evidence before
it; even as it freed the ninth accused -Sussana James Duru for having
not actively participated in the dastardly act.
The convicted , who were all found guilty of first degree murder are:
James Ugwuoha Duru, Fester Nuforo, Alexander Nnadi (Alias Apollo),
Friday Nuforo, Jonathan Chuddy Nnadi, Chifoanu Okorie, Mattias Ohazurike
and Evans Egbujor.
Delivering the landmark judgement in a suit number: HOW/4C/2007, the
presiding judge analysed all the evidences before it and found eight,
out of the nine accused, guilty of conspiracy and murder.
“You are to be hanged by your neck until you are drained of your life
breath and you are dead and may God have mercy on your soul,” the
judgement reads in part.
Investigations revealed that the freed Sussana James-Ugwuoha (wife of
James Ugwuoha Duru) was linked to one of the murderers by marriage and
although, she was said to have accompanied her husband to the house of
the deceased on the fateful day to lure him to the scene of the crime,
she hadn’t actively participated in the dastardly act.
The accused was, therefore, freed and allowed to return home. All the
condemned criminals were led away in handcuffs to a waiting Black Maria
by armed security officials and prison guards.
Making their last comments as they were being led out by security
operatives, Festa Nuforo wailed, “Nze Dominic was my father!; while
James Ugwuoha contended in vain with his captors for a chance to shake
his wife’s hand, retorting that he already knew that he would never
return home alive.
