Tina Amanda
A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has fixed 15 January, 2021, for judgement in the murder case of Jumia delivery agent Chukwuma Eleje, who was killed at Ada-George, in Obio Akpor local government area of Rivers state.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Chigozie Igwe, reserved judgement after listening to Counsels’ submissions of their final written addresses.
In his submission, Bonaventure Ugwu, Counsel representing 1st Defendant Sodienye Mbatumueke, urged the court to discharge and acquit his client as prosecution did not prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.
He submitted that the prosecution did not produce electronic evidence of the 1st suspect confessional statement as required by law to prove Mbatumueke is guilty of offence charged.
Lucky Agor, Counsel to 2nd Defendant, Excel Naabee also submitted that the court should discharge and acquit his client as prosecution failed to prove that Naabee is an accomplice in the murder of late Chukwuma Eleje.
According to him, the circumstance surrounding the deceased death does not show that the 2nd Defendant had anything to do with the murder.
Also, the Prosecution Counsel urged the court to prosecute the 1st and 2nd Defendants as the forty-three exhibits and ten witnesses presented before the court is very cogent.
He noted that the confessional statement of the 1st accused proved that he tricked the deceased to come into the compound so he can kill him and collect his valuables.
Submitting further, she said the 1st Defendant confessed to having only twenty thousand (20,000) naira in his bank account which was not enough to buy the two iphones worth one hundred and eighty thousand (180,000) naira he ordered from Jumia.
She urged the court to sentence the 1st and 2nd Defendants as they are both guilty of the crime, as 2nd Defendant led police officers to the septic tank where corpse of Chukwuma Eleje was disposed, thereby making him an accomplice.
Recall that Chukwuma Eleje was murdered in March 2017 at Ada-George area of Port Harcourt, when he went to deliver items ordered online, by Sodienye Mbatumueke and his accomplice Excel Naabee, his body was later recovered inside a septic tank.
The Defendants Sodienye Mbatumueke and Excel Naabee have been standing trial on two count charges of murder and armed robbery
