Justice Winifred Effiong of the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Essien handed the sentence to the brothers on Wednesday.
One Pastor Uduak Umoren, and his brother, Emmanuel Umoren, have been sentenced to death by hanging for beating one Iboro Joe to death over a land dispute.
Justice Winifred Effiong of the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Essien handed the sentence to the brothers on Wednesday.
Joe, a 45-year-old farmer and trader from Ikot Otu in the Essien Udim local government area was attacked by the pastor and his brother when he reportedly visited his sister-in-law in Adiasim Ikot Ekon in the same council area to offer his condolences to her on the death of her husband.
Trouble, however, began when the sister-in-law asked him to accompany her to her late husband’s farmland to assess how much she could sell it to raise money for his burial. The widow told the court that when the wife of the pastor's brother saw them, he alerted her husband that someone was trying to bury ‘juju’ on their family land.
She further narrated that upon arriving at the farmland, the second convict started attacking the deceased and beating him. His wife also invited her son and her brother-in-law, the pastor, who allegedly joined in cutting the deceased with a machete and broken bottles.
The deceased was beaten into a state of coma and dragged to his family compound close to the farm, where he died three days later.
Following the development, the police arrested the convicts and filed charges against them.
Delivering judgment on the matter on Wednesday, the trial judge, Justice Effiong found the two accused persons guilty of murder and consequently sentenced them to death by hanging.
Justice Effiong held that the "prosecution has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the accused did intentionally kill the deceased".