Expdonaloaded News/ You must die, court tells Cynthia Osokogu’s killers

A High Court in Igbosere, Lagos South West Nigeria has sentenced Okwumo Nwabufo and Olisaeloka Ezike to death by hanging for killing Cynthia Osokogu, then a postgraduate student of Nasarawa State University. Osokogu was killed in 2012 after being lured to Cosmilla Hotel in Lakeview estate in FESTAC town, Lagos in Nigeria.
In a judgment on Thursday, Justice of the High Court Olabisi Akinlade, held that evidence presented before the court, testimonies of prosecution witnesses, and confessional statements Osokogu made to the police, left no doubt that Nwabufo and Ezike killed Osokogu. The accused were arraigned on a six-count charge of conspiracy, murder, stealing, recklessness, negligence and possession of stolen goods, alongside Orji Osita and Ezike Nonso. During the proceedings, 10 witnesses gave evidence. The court initially foreclosed the right of the second accused, Ezike, to file his address. The judge made the order due to the delay by his counsel to file his final written address. According to the judge, there were several adjournments by the court to enable the second accused file his address but the counsel chose to sleep on the right of his client. However, after the excuse of ill-health and change of counsel were given as reasons for the delay, the judge allowed the address to be regularised. The murder trial began on February 8, 2013, with the state calling the hotel’s receptionist as its first witness. The body of late Cynthia, 24, the only daughter of a retired brigadier general, Frank Osokogu, was discovered in a Lagos morgue a month after she was declared missing by her family. Follow us on twitter @newsreportersng