Three kidnappers, who displayed no visible signs of remorse, were on Thursday sentenced to death by hanging by the Delta State High Court, Warri.
They are Shadrach Samson Dobibe, Francis Mudiaga and Ejiro Diamond, all in their 30s.
The convicts were found guilty of kidnapping an 80-year-old woman, Ighoru Eruvbedede, and killed her after collecting a ransom of N.8 million from her kinsmen.
The victim, the mother to a one-time Chairman of Delta State Art Council, on July 6, 2009 at Uduophiri Village, Patani, within the Bomadi Judicial Division was whisked away by the convicted persons.
They were tried on a four-count information charge of conspiracy to commit a felony to wit kidnap, the substantial offence of kidnapping, demanding property with menace and murder.
The prosecuting counsel from the state Ministry of Justice told the court that the condemned persons, including a fourth accused person, Akpodiete Oghenekaro, who was discharged and acquitted for lack of sufficient evident linking him to the offence, conspired and executed their conspiracy by kidnapping the 80-year-old woman.
Prosecution further told the court that the convicted persons later placed a call to their victim’s son, Jerry Eruvbedede, demanding for a N20 million ransom before she could be released.
The three accused persons upon their arrest by security operatives of the Department of State Services, admitted in their confessional statements to have committed the offence. They also admitted to have collected the N800,000 ransom, which they claimed was meant for the upkeep of their victim as the ransom was later scaled down to N4 million.
They confessed that the victim died out of starvation as she was bound hands, legs and mouth to prevent her from escaping as she had earlier attempted to escape.
They admitted in their statements that the victim’s corpse was thrown into the Otuomor River where it was swept away by the flowing water.
Delivering its judgement, the court described the action of the convicts, for kidnapping and killing a defenceless octogenarian, as “heinous”, which must not go unpunished and thereby sentenced them to death by hanging.
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