For setting ablaze her co-wife and seven children, an aged woman, Mrs. Agnes Nwefuru, a native of Ogboji in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, was on Monday sentenced to death by hanging.
The suspect was convicted by a State High Court sitting in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
The Plaintiff, Ebonyi State Government had in a suit No. HAW/13C/2017, brought against the defendant, Agnes Nwefuru, accused her of setting ablaze the House of her co-wife, Felicia Nwefuru, which took her life and the lives of her seven children.
The prosecution contended that the accused also burnt her own house during the evil act as a camouflage. It further contended that the accused removed all her belongings and that of her children and took them to a safe place outside the house before committing the act.
Recall that in 2017, eight members of a family were burnt to death following a mysterious fire that engulfed their residential house around 3: 00 am at Ogboji community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
Two persons survived the inferno: the husband, Mr. Sylvanus Nwefuru and Miss Ukamaka Nwefuru, one of Felicia’s daughters. The fire razed the two houses in the compound.
Delivering the judgement, the presiding judge, Justice Uwabunkonye Onwosi, declared that the prosecution proved that the defendant was guilty of the murder charge preferred against her.
Ruled the Judge: “Nwefuru Agnes is found guilty of murder and is hereby convicted. The term of her sentence is that she be hanged by the neck until she is dead”.
