26-yr-old to hang for robbery, rape

FOR robbing a couple at gunpoint and raping their teenage daughter, a Delta High
Court sitting in Warri, yesterday, sentenced a 26-year-old furniture maker, Chijioke Ede, to
death by hanging.
The condemned armed robber and rapist was arraigned on a three-count charge of conspiracy
to commit armed robbery, armed robbery and rape before the court presided over by Justice
Marshall Mukoro.
He was found guilty on all the charges and sentenced to death on count one and two, while
he got life imprisonment on the charge of rape.
Prosecution from Delta State Ministry of Justice had told the court that Chijioke, from Enugu
State, with another person still at large, on or about October 12, 2009, at Okoro Street, Warri,
off Marine Gate, within the Warri Judicial Division, robbed his victims of a DVD player, a laptop
computer, cash, jewelries and other valuables at gunpoint and also raped their teenage
daughter.
The convict was arrested by the vigilante group in the area as his gang made to escape with
their loot.
Justice Mukoro held: “With the avalanche of facts and evidences before this court, for the
accused to say he was not involved in the crime is laughable and an afterthought.
“For the court to hold the evidence of the accused will amount to denial of justice, thereby
bringing the bar and the bench to disrepute.
“I hereby uphold the evidence of prosecution as all the ingredients of the offence have been
proved beyond reasonable doubt and sentence the accused to death by hanging on count one
and two.”