Pastor and 2 others sentenced to 21 years imprisonment for kidnapping

JUSTICE T.O. Diai of a High Court in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, on Friday sentenced a Pastor and two others to a cummulative 60 years for kidnapping one Anthony Ogbolumani.

Diai pronounced the three accused persons guilty and sentenced them to seven years imprisonment each for conspiracy, 10 years each for kidnapping and three years each for demanding N20m as ransom.

However, the court said the jail terms would run concurrently.
Those convicted were Ifeanyi Obiakpani, an uncle to the victim, who the prosecution claimed masterminded the kidnap, Peter Okafor, a Pastor and Christian Eze .


According to police prosecution, led by Marcel Okoh, former Director of Public Prosecutions, the offence was committed on December 21, 2009 at 15 Umuagu Quarters, Asaba.

Obiakpani was said to have conspired with others to seize Ogbolumani and was thereafter taken away to Awka where he was kept before the State Security Service rescued him.
During trial, the three accused persons had denied the allegations against them, urging the court to discharge them for lack of sufficient evidence.
But Diai held that the prosecution had convinced the court that the ingredients of the offence in the three count charge of which the convicts were standing trial since 2010 had been “proved beyond all reasonable doubt’’.
Source: Punch