…Two-Year Jail Term For Second Defendant
The prosecution in the trial of Gracious David West has pleaded that the court should pronounce the first defendant guilty and give him maximum sentence for allegedly murdering women in hotels in Port-Harcourt and other cities.
David West is facing trial for the alleged murder of women in Port-Harcourt and other cities on ten-count charge, nine of murder and one attempted murder.
The Rivers State government prosecuted the case after taken it over from the State Police Command.
Chidi Ekeh, the principal state counsel, said in his final written address on Friday that the court should convict and give maximum sentence to David West accused of the crimes.
He later said in an interview that two-year jail term should be given to the second defendant, Nimi ThankGod, if convicted, for “misconduct with corpse”.
Ekeh told the court in his written address that the prosecution had proved his case against the defendants as required by law.
He said he proved his case beyond reasonable doubt and asked the court to convict them.
The prosecuting counsel said that a case could be proved by confessions of defendant, eyewitness account and circumstantial evidence, saying the first defendant took police officers to the hotels where he committed the crimes.
He also said that a CCTV footage played in court showed the first defendant go into hotel with a lady saying the first defendant should be held responsible for the death of the lady who was later found dead in the hotel.
The counsel for David West however said that the prosecution failed to prove his case.
Vincent Chuku said in his written address that the prosecution did not prove his case of murder beyond reasonable doubt against his client and appealed to the court to discharge and acquit him.
He said that no one came forward to say that he saw the first defendant commit the crimes.
The defence counsel said that his client’s statements were reliable saying that the prosecution appealed to sentiment in the case.
The counsel for the second defendant, Lezina Amegua, in his address said that the court should discharge and acquit his client.
After listening to the addresses, the presiding judge of the Port-Harcourt High Court, Honourable Justice Adolphus Enebeli, adjourned the case to 9 October for judgement.
Talking to newsmen outside the courtroom, the principal state counsel, Chidi Ekeh, who is prosecuting the case, said: “Today was (for the) adoption of our written addresses… I said that the court should believe our evidence and then convict the first defendant and if it does it should impose the maximum sentence which is a sentence of death. With respect to the second defendant, hers would not be a sentence of death if she is found guilty but two years imprisonment for misconduct with corpse, for dumping the corpse of one of the victims at a dustbin”.
Ekeh said that he proved his case beyond reasonable doubt against the first defendant.
The prosecuting counsel said: “We have proved that certain persons are dead. We have proved that their deaths did not occur naturally. We have also proved that their deaths came as a result of the act of the first defendant who in his own extrajudicial statement confessed to the crime and gave a detailed account of how he met his victims and lured them to the various hotels and murdered them by asphyxiation or strangulation. We have proved our case beyond reasonable doubt against the first defendant and he and no other is the person who committed the crime”.
He also said that the video footage played in court was another evidence against the first defendant.
The counsel to the first defendant, Vincent Chuku, however said in an interview that the prosecution failed to prove his case against his client.
He said that the prosecuting counsel only tried to whip up sentiment in his written address.
On his part, counsel to the second defendant, Lezina Amegua, said that it was his position that the court should discharge and acquit his client.
