One Jacob Atongo, a 100-level sociology
student, Benue State
University, a serial armed robber has been sentenced to death by hanging.
Justice Adam Onum of Makurdi High Court,
on Tuesday sentenced, passed the sentence in his detailed judgment and said that he was
satisfied with the confession of the accused to the charges and therefore, found him guilty and sentenced him to death as prescribed under the law for the offence.
The testimony against
Atongo was that he conspired with two others and robbed one Stephen Akuma, and several others at
gun point on June 26, 2012.
The convict and his
accomplices robbed Akuma of his Toyota Camry car with registration number Benue AID 39 AA and other victims of valuables.
He was said to have also attacked and robbed Judges'Quarters, Makurdi on July 3, 2012.
However counsel to the accused, Mr E.Z. Agbakor, made spirited efforts to the airtight submission of the
prosecution without success.
Agbakor tried in vain to cast doubt in the mind of the court when he submitted that the confessional relied on by the prosecution was not voluntary. That would have earned him a trial within trial if upheld, but it could not sail through the ocean of the judge's knowledge. , Prosecuting Counsel, Mrs Moji Sule,submitted that prosecution had
established every charge against the accused based on the strength of his own statements and, the judge believed the prosecution and sent the accused person to the noose.
