The Supreme Court of Nigeria has today, ruled that the General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Reverend King must die by hanging for murder after dismissing his appeal for lack of merit.
General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, popularly known as Rev. King, has today, February 26th, sentenced to die by hanging by the Supreme court.
It was gathered that in the unanimous judgment this afternoon, a 7-man panel of Justices of the apex court led by Justice Walter Onnoghen, upheld the death sentence that was earlier handed to Ezeugo by the Lagos State High Court.
It can be recalled that Rev. King was charged to court by the Lagos State Government on September 26th, 2006 on a six-count charge of attempted murder and murder of one of his members including Ann Uzoh on August 2nd, 2006.
Specifically, the Lagos State Government said that the convict poured gasoline (petrol) on the deceased and five other persons and that Uzoh died on August 2, 2006; 11 days after the act was perpetrated against her
Rev. King pleaded not guilty to the allegation but was sentenced to death by the then Justice Joseph Oyewole of Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, on January 11, 2007, for the murder of one of his church members, Ann Uzoh.
In her judgment, trial Justice Joseph Oyewole who is now a Justice of the Court of Appeal at Calabar, said there was sufficient evidence linking the accused person to the commission of the crime.
Consequently, Justice Oyewole convicted and sentenced Ezeugo to 20 years imprisonment for the attempted murder and death by hanging for the offence of murder. Justice Fatimo Akinbami who read the judgement that day, stated,
"I at this moment, I rule that the prosecution effectively discharged the burden of proof on it. This appeal is devoid of any basis and accordingly fails. The judgment of the High Court is hereby affirmed, and the conviction imposed on the appellant, (which is death by hanging) is also affirmed."
Dissatisfied, Rev King challenged the verdict before the Court of Appeal in Lagos, but the appeal was thrown out. The two other members of the panel of Justices, Amina Augie and Ibrahim Saulawa, concurred with the lead judgement.
Ezeugo, still dissatisfied, turned to the Supreme Court, asking for the judgment to be upturned. However, his appeal was challenged by the Lagos state government which through its Attorney General, Adeniji Kazeem and Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Idowu Alakija, urged the apex court to dismiss it and uphold the concurrent verdicts of the two lower courts.
The Supreme Court justices showed no mercy on Rev. King during today's judgement as the self acclaimed man-of-God is set to meet his creator anytime from now.