A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has sentenced the General Overseer, Alter of Solution and Healing Assembly in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the State, Pastor Chidiebere Okoroafor to death for killing three persons, including his choir mistress, who he impregnated.
Trial judge, Justice S. Benson in his judgment in the murder trial delivered, yesterday, said the evidence and confessional statement by Pastor Okoroafor proved he murdered his church’s choir mistress after getting her pregnant and also killed her friend, Chigozie Ezenwa, with her daughter, Christabel Ezenwa.
Justice Benson said the prosecution proved the case of murder against Pastor Okoroafor, ordering that he be killed by hanging his neck until he is dead or be injected with lethal injection, which also kills faster.
Men of Rivers Police Command had on December 17, 2018, arrested Okoroafor, following the alarm raised by the husband to the late Chigozie Ezenwa over the killing of three victims on December 11, 2018, in two different locations in a community in Oyigbo.
Prosecution counsel from the state Ministry of Justice, Precious Ordu and Antonia Osademe, representing the International Federation of Female Lawyers in the murder trial expressed happiness over the judgment they described as justice well served.
Counsel to the convicted pastor, Innocent Ekwu, said there were reasonable grounds to appeal the judgment against his client.
Hearsay triggers unnecessary tension, security consultant, Mese, warns
A security consultant in Delta State and Chairman/ Managing Director of Focus Guard Security Limited/ FBI Security, Deacon Shola Mese, has cautioned against spreading unverified stories about insecurity, saying: “Hearsay triggers unnecessary tension.”
Mese, who gave the warning in a chat with newsmen, yesterday, at his private office in Effurun near Warri, expressed optimism that the security situation in Delta State would improve because Governor Sheriff Oborevwori “has experience as former Senior Special Adviser on Security to the Delta State government, under Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan administration.”
Calling on indigenous and foreign investors to come and invest in Warri and other parts of the state, Mese, who is also the founder of the Shola Mese Foundation, recalled how he collaborated with the Police as Patron of Anti Cult in the area, to apprehend some of the persons responsible for kidnapping along Airport Road in Warri and Effurun, thus reducing criminal activities along that axis and its adjourning routes.
He said: “Insecurity is a national issue, in order to tackle insecurity in Warri and Delta State in general, everyone needs to work in synergy with the various security agencies.
“As Patron of Anti Cult, we worked in collaboration with the Police to apprehend most of the youths involved in criminal activities. Through the Shola Mese Foundation, we have been able to rehabilitate the ones who were ready to turn a new leaf. We rehabilitated them through the acquisition of skills and other forms of vocational training.
“Through the Foundation, we engaged most street boys, who do drugs, because violent crimes are common among drug addicts. We rehabilitated and empowered them through our vocational training for free.”
@Vanguard
