The Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, has sentenced a soldier and one other accomplice to de@th by hanging for armed robbery while the third accused earlier linked to the crimes was discharged and acquitted by the court for insufficient evidence.
The two convicts were found guilty of robbing commercial tricycle operators, popularly known as ‘Keke Napep,’ at gunpoint. Leadership reports that the soldier is a 41-year-old identified as Promise Okokon Usoro, a dismissed Lance Corporal with 6 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Ibagwa Barracks in Abak local government area, and a resident of Ikot Osom. He was found guilty of robbing one Peter Daniel Okon of his tricycle along Idoro Road in Uyo on February 10, 2013, armed with an AK-47 rifle.
The convict had earlier faced a court-martial over the robbery incident resulting in his dismissal from the army before he was handed over to the Nigeria Police for prosecution.
In his confessional statement, Usoro admitted to participating in at least three armed robbery operations targeting tricyclists in Uyo, alongside an accomplice simply identified as JJ, who is currently at large.
He confessed that one of the stolen tricycles was sold by JJ, and was given a share of N50,000 from the proceeds.
The second convict, Odinaka Emmanuel Victor, 32 years old from Osisioma Ngwa, in Abia State, also confessed to robbing another victim, Anyanwu Chidi Francis, on February 14, 2013, along Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo, while armed with an AK-47 rifle in the company of the convicted ex-soldier.
Odinaka revealed in his extrajudicial statement that he had been involved in tricycle snatching operations in Port Harcourt, Rivers State led by one Engr. Obuigwe.
He narrated that on February 10, 2013, he was contacted by a gang member named James, who brought him to Uyo in a Passat car for an operation.
Odinaka disclosed that the gang picked up the soldier at the barracks and proceeded to rob a tricyclist, but was later arrested with the stolen tricycle, while the others fled.
The duo stood trial alongside a third accused person, Ndifreke Willie Udo, a 37-year-old native of Odoro Ikot in Essien Udim LGA, who was residing in Port Harcourt at the time of the incident.
However, delivering judgment 12 years after the crime, the trial judge, Justice Archibong Archibong ruled that the prosecution had proved the case beyond every reasonable doubt against the convicts.
The Court, therefore discharged and acquitted the third defendant, Ndifreke Udo, for lack of sufficient evidence linking him to the crime, while Usoro and Odinaka were sentenced to death by hanging.
