Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
A Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Awka, has found one Okechukwu Udeogu guilty and convicted him for forcefully and unlawfully invading a widow’s compound with ‘Ovulikpo’ masquerade.
The court, presided over by Dr Mike Anyadiegwu, while delivering its judgment recently, stated that the defendant, Okechukwu Udeogu, who hails from Umuanum Village, Nibo, Awka South Local Government Area, was guilty of three out of the six-count charges brought against him and for which he was standing trial before the court.
Among the charges were, “that the defendant, Okechukwu Udeogu, forcefully invaded and took over the dwelling house of a widow, one Mrs. Beatrice Udeogu, where he began to invoke, plant and worship fetish objects, with a view to alarming and causing apprehension in the widow.”
In a-fifteen-paged judgment of six-count charges brought against the defendant, Dr. Anyadiegwu also found him guilty of other charges bordering on threat to life and assault, resulting in physical injuries on the said widow.
He ordered the defendant to remove all the fetish objects he planted in the said widow’s compound and return the compound to her, forthwith.
It was gathered that the complainant, Mrs. Udeogu, was the wife of the defendant’s late uncle, who reportedly, has no surviving male child of reasonable sound mind; and that the kindred had adjudicated on the matter in favour of the widow.
However, the defendant’s refusal to abide by the kindred-family’s decisions, prompted the long legal battle, which first commenced in 2012, until June 30, 2020, when the defendant was finally brought and arraigned before Dr. Mike Anyadiegwu of Awka Magisterial District, on a six- count charge.
The presiding Magistrate, in his legal pronouncements, noted that cases are not determined and won on number of witnesses brought to testify before a court, but on the potency and weight of evidences before the court, stating that, a court, being the last hope of the common man, must at all times, ensure justice for all persons, and especially, the protection of vulnerable persons in the society, from the excesses of others.
The defendant, Okechukwu Udeogu, was remanded in Prison custody, following his conviction and case further adjourned to the 5th day of August, 2022, for sentencing.
