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ABUJA—Three years after her death, the husband of the late popular gospel singer, Osinachi, Mr. Peter Nwachukwu, was, yesterday, sentenced to death by hanging by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, sitting at Wuse Zone 2, Abuja.
Nwachukwu, who was prosecuted on a 23-count charge by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, was found guilty of culpable homicide, as the court established that he was responsible for the death of his wife on April 8, 2022.
In a judgment that was delivered by Justice Njideka Nwosu-Iheme, the court held that the prosecution successfully discharged the burden of proof that was placed on it by the law.
The court placed reliance on oral testimonies of 17 witnesses that testified in the course of the trial, among whom were two children of the late singer, as well as documentary evidence that was adduced against the convict.
Though the convict testified in his own defence and also produced four witnesses to deny the allegation that he killed his wife, the court held that the weight of evidence adduced in the matter was sufficient to establish his guilt.
Meanwhile, before the death sentence was passed, Nwachukwu’s counsel, Mr. Reginald Nwali, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.
In his plea of allocutus, the defence lawyer, among other things, drew the attention of the court to the fact that the convict had no previous record of crime.
On his part, the prosecution counsel, Aderonke Imala, urged the court to wield the big stick and give force to the law as stipulated.
Whereas Justice Nwosu-Iheme sentenced Nwachukwu to death by hanging on Count 1, he was handed two years imprisonment each on counts 2, 3, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 18.
More so, the trial judge sentenced the convict to six months imprisonment on count 10; three years on count 11, and further imposed a N500,000 and N200,000 fine on him, with respect to counts 6 and 7 of the charge.
The convict was, on June 3, 2022, docked before the court on a charge that bordered on domestic violence and culpable homicide, even as the prosecution alleged that his wife died as a result of prolonged assault by him.
The Federal Government alleged that the late singer, Osinachi, was forcefully ejected from her matrimonial home by her husband, contrary to the Violence Against Persons, VAP (Prohibition) Act, 2015.
It alleged that the defendant, Nwachukwu, had at a time, forcefully pushed late osinachi out of a moving vehicle.
He was specifically charged for committing culpable homicide under sections 104 and 379 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, an offence contrary to section 221 of the Penal Code and punishable with death.
The charge marked CR/199/2022, was entered before the court by the Head, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, Department of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Ministry of Justice, Mrs Yewande Gbola-Awopetun.
FG alleged that the defendant deprived the deceased of her personal liberty by restraining her movement and locking her up in the house.
It accused the defendant of subjecting the deceased to emotional, verbal and psychological abuse, contrary to section 14(1) of the VAP Act, 2015.
Besides, FG told the court that investigations revealed that the defendant denied Osinachi access to her money for medication and household necessities, and thereby forced her into begging and borrowing.
It alleged that Osinachi’s husband forcefully isolated and separated her from her family by preventing her mother and siblings from visiting her matrimonial home.
Nwachukwu was further charged for cruelly beating his children, recording their cry and playing it on his phone.
He was said to have threatened the kids and prevented them from reporting the acts of domestic violence against their mother to the head pastor of their church, Dr. Paul Enenche, or any other person.
However, upon his arraignment, the convict denied all the allegations and pleaded his innocence to the charge.
The court subsequently dismissed a no-case-submission he made for the charge to be dismissed on the ground that the totality of evidence adduced in the matter did not establish a prima-facie case against him.
It will be recalled that Osinachi, the Ekwueme crooner, was buried on June 25, 2022, at her hometown Isiochi Umunneochi in Abia State.
