3 to die by hanging for kidnapping 4-year-old boy

The Akwa Ibom State High Court 7 sitting in Uyo has sentenced three persons to death by hanging for kidnapping a four-year-old boy.

The boy was said to have been kidnapped on November 18, 2016 in Ikot Inyang Idung village, Uyo Local Government Area.

The sentenced men were 24-year-old Victor Etim Bassey, 35-year-old Aniediong Ezekiel Thompson, from Ikot Inyang Idung and Ifa Ikot Akpan respectively in Uyo LGA, Akwa Ibom State and 30-yearold Chike Okeke, a native of Eziaja in Anaocha LGA in Anambra State, and graduate of Accounting.

The Presiding Judge, Justice

Okon Okon, said: “From the totality of the evidence of the prosecution within and confession of the accused persons in their statements to the Police, it was not lawful excuse that the child was taken away from his mother’s house.”

He held that Bassey took away the child to the second accused Thompson for monetary consideration which they shared.

The court said while Victor sold the four-year-old to Aniediong at N200,000; Aniediong in turn, resold him to Chika at N450,000 who also sold him to “one sister’” at N550,000, now at large.

Justice Okon said: “With the help of the third convict, the child was recovered by the Police in Nnewi and reunited with his family in Akwa Ibom.

“In a criminal trial, the guilt of the accused for the commission of any crime can be proved by the evidence of an eyewitness, circumstantial evidence and confessional statements”.

While sentencing the three accused to death by hanging, Justice Okon prayed God to have mercy on their souls.

Recounting how his son was kidnapped, the mother of the four-year-old boy told the court that she left her son in the custody of his sibling on November 18, 2016, while she went to market.

She said the first convict (Victor) gave the child’s elder brother N50 to buy tom-tom sweet, only for him to return home to see that both his brother and the convict were not there.