The murder case the state government brought against one Chiugo Ajuluchukwu; from Umuezema Village Ojoto in Idemili South Local Government Area has ended with an Anambra State High Court Ogidi sitting at Onitsha sentencing the defendant to three years imprisonment after finding him guilty of “assault occasioning harm” on the deceased and his stepmother, Ifeoma Ajuluchukwu.
Correspondent, Joseph Egbeocha reports that the court presided over by Justice Alex Okuma had earlier discharged and acquitted the defendant of the offence of murder, but later remarked that his action –unlawful removal of the roof of building without prior notice to the deceased living therein – provoked the incident of fifteenth January 2024, being the day the defendant was said to beaten the deceased and she was hospitalized.
Pleading for leniency, Counsel to the Defendant , stated that there was no evidence of his client previously assaulting the deceased or committing such provocative act, pointing out that the defendant has been in custody for a year and two months.
Opposing the plea , Principal State Counsel, Amara Muojeke, with the brief of the Anambra State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Professor Sylvia Ifemeje, argued that the offence for which the defendant is standing trial is such that the court does not have the discretion to tamper with the law in respect to sentencing, and prayed that the defendant be sentenced as convicted.
In sentencing the defendant, the court held that even a tenant will justifiably be provoked by what it termed “unwarranted, provocative and unlawful action” of the defendant; not to talk of the deceased he admitted to be his stepmother living in the house of her late husband and also father of the defendant.
