A Delta State High Court sitting at Ogwashi-Uku has sentenced one Stephen AmamifeAdim, a member of a four-man armed robbery gang fingered for terrorising residents of Ogwashi -Uku and its environs, to die by hanging.
Stephen Amamife, a barber, was arraigned before the court on a three-count charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and two separate counts of armed robbery punishable under section 1 (2) (a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act Cap R 11, Volume 14 Laws of the Federation, 2004.
He was found guilty on two counts and sentenced to death by hanging as the mandatory punishment prescribed by law for the offence.
“The law provides a mandatory sentence on the charges and the court does not have the powers to mitigate the sentence. The sentence of the court upon you is that you be hang on the neck until you be dead, may God have mercy on your soul,” the court held.
This was after listening to a plea for the court to temper justice with mercy by his counsel.
The prosecutor had told the court that Amamife with others now at large, including one Emeka John Nzedunor who escaped from prison custody, on or about December 7, 2010, at Ogwashi-Uku, within the Ogwashi-Uku Judicial Division, robbed one pharmacist, Chidibere Christian Orji, of one DSTV mobile phone, a gold necklace belonging to his wife and a cash sum of N46, 000 while armed with guns.
In his confessional statement which was admitted in evidence after trial within trial, the accused did not only admit to the crime but also confessed that his gang had robbed a filling station, another pharmaceutical shop and several residents of the area.