Rev. King to die by hanging, Supreme Court orders

Chukwuemeka Ezeugo (aka Rev. King)

The Supreme Court has affirmed the death sentence passed on the General-Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo (aka Rev. King), by a Lagos High Court in Ikeja for the murder and attempted murder of some members of his church in 2006.

It will be recalled that the Reverend was sentenced to death by hanging by the trial Judge of the Lagos High Court, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole (now Justice of the Court of Appeal) on January 11, 2007, following his condemnation over six counts of murder charge on a member of his church, Ann Uzor and attempt murder of 5 other members on September 26, 2006.

Ezeugo was said to have poured petrol on the deceased and the five other victims and set them on fire thereafter.

One of the victims, Uzoh, was said to have died on August 2, 2006, 11 days after the incident, as a result of the injuries said to have been sustained from the burnt. She was said to have been 65 per cent burnt in the fire incident.

He had appealed to the Court of
Appeal against the judgment of  Justice Oyewole, but the judgment of the Lagos High Court was affirmedd by the Court of Appeal in its verdict delivered on February 1, 2013.

The judgment of the appeal court was further affirmed today by the Supreme Court. Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, who read the lead judgment, said, “The fact of this case could have been lifted from a horror film.”

The Justice Amina Augie-led three-man panel of the appeal court, had unanimously dismissed Ezeugo’s appeal, stating that the prosecution had “surely and effectively” proved its case against him at the trial court.

Justice Fatima Akinbami who read the lead judgment had dismissed the appellant’s contention that there were “contradictions and inconsistencies” in the prosecution’s evidence.