An Edo State Special Criminal Court has sentenced four people to death for their roles in kidnapping a woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road in Benin City.
Justice Aigbona Momodu delivered the judgment on 11 charges, including kidnapping, conspiracy, armed robbery, cultism, and illegal possession of firearms. Channels TV reported the ruling on Tuesday.
The court was set up under the directive of Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo to handle kidnapping and cultism cases.
Those sentenced were Marvelous Isaac, 32; Wisdom Michael, 36; Rufus Michael, 30; and Gift Raphael, 27. Three are male, and one is female.
The court also ordered that items recovered from the convicts — a pump-action rifle, two live cartridges, and two spent cartridges — be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Edo State Police Command.
According to The PUNCH, the woman was at the market with her husband and children when gunmen arrived and took her away.
A woman who claimed to have witnessed the incident said in an online video that she saw the kidnapping happen. She said she saved the victim’s children and showed bruises on her legs. She added that the attack occurred at Airport Road by the Vegetable Market.
The incident was later confirmed by the state police public relations officer, Eno Ikoedem.
In sentencing, the court gave each defendant seven years’ imprisonment on count one. It sentenced Marvelous Isaac to death on counts two through nine, ten years on count ten, and life imprisonment on count eleven.
Wisdom Michael was sentenced to death on counts two through nine. Rufus Emete Michael was sentenced to death on counts two, three, four, six, and seven. Gift Raphael was sentenced to death on counts two, four, six, and eight.
The death sentence is to be carried out by hanging or lethal injection, with the court stating that the defendants shall be hanged by the neck until dead.
The court also ordered the pump-action rifle and cartridges confiscated to the Federal Government of Nigeria. They are to be handed over to the Edo State Armourer of the Nigerian Police, State CID, Edo State Headquarters, through the Deputy Director of the Criminal Division, for destruction after 30 days.
