Rev King (Reverend Chukwuemeka Ezeuko) being led away by security officials after the conviction

Vivian Ezeocha, a victim

Controversial Lagos clergyman, Mr. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, alias Dr. Reverend King, was on January 10, 2007 found guilty and convicted on five counts of attempted murder and a sixth count of murder by an Ikeja High Court judge, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole. Following the conviction, he was sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of late Ann Uzoh King, a member of the convict's church, the Christian Praying Assembly (CPA).

King, General Overseer (G.O.) of the Isolo, Lagos State, based church (CPA), was also sentenced to a cumulative jail term of 100 years, being 20 years each on five counts, although he is to serve the cumulative jail term concurrently. The jail term will take effect only if the murder sentence is commuted or set aside.

King was alleged to have attempted to murder seven people on July 22, at No. 6B, Canal View, Ajao Estate, Lagos by pouring petrol on them and setting them on fire; an offence punishable under Section 332 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State, 2003. The victims include Miss Onuorah Chizoba formerly known as Hope King; Olisa Chiejina; Uche Chukwu Iwoba; Vivian Ezeocha; Kossi-sochukwu Henry; Nwere Jessica; and Ann Uzoh King, who died on August 2, 2006, allegedly from overwhelming infection and hypo-volemic shock occasioned by injuries from her 2nd and 3rd degree burns.

Reading for three and a half hours from a 72-page judgment and a one-page sentence, Oyewole declared, "the accused (now convict) acted intentionally and with impunity. I hold that the prosecution has established beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person murdered Ann Uzoh alias Ann Uzoh King. The only line of defense he had was total denial, an alibi which collapsed in the face of over-whelming evidence locating him at the scene of crime".

To the judge, "the accepted evidence before the court is that the accused was angered by the supposed improper sexual relationship among the victims, upon which he assaulted them in various degrees and later decided to kill them by burning them".

"He was in control of his senses sufficiently to move the burning out of his sitting room and away from his vehicles. While he inflicted various beatings on the victims, they never retaliated but were on their knees begging him. They called him daddy, yet all he thought of was to brutally terminate their lives".

Before a stunned court-room audience, which included attaché-law students, the media, legal practitioners, bomb squad members, mobile and regular policemen, court staff, and curious on-lookers, the judge added, "setting human beings ablaze on allegations of improper conduct cannot be justified on grounds of provocation. It is most disproportional, same way as decapitation cannot be a remedy for headache".

"From his conduct during the trial, the accused was definitely not insane. I therefore find the accused person guilty as charged on each counts 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, and I hereby convict him accordingly on each of the said counts".

In a one-page sentence delivered immediately after the judgment, Oyewole ruled, "religious fundamentalism of the basest type as gave rise to the offences for which the accused was found guilty has never done any society any good".

"It is sad that the Nigerian society is bogged down with myriad of problems ranging from poverty to corruption both in the economic and the spiritual sense, which has engendered many of its vulnerable elements susceptible to the wares of religious highway-men such as the accused here, who offer them stone when they deserve bread and scorpion when they demand for fish".

He claimed the maximum punishment for attempted murder is life imprisonment and death penalty for murder, and added that the severity of the offences and cruel callousness behind them must be reflected in the sentence; and thereafter sentenced the convict to twenty years imprisonment each for the five counts of attempted murder, which are to run concurrently and shall only take effect if the sentence in respect of Count 6 (murder) is commuted or set aside.

Delivering the convict's death penalty at 1.20pm after the marathon judgment, Oyewole intoned, "having been found guilty of murder in respect of count 6, the sentence of the court upon you Chukwu-emeka Ezeuko alias Dr. Rev. King is that you be hanged by the neck until you be dead and may the Lord have mercy on your soul"; after which the judge exited the court-room amid mixed reactions from onlookers.

However, the convict who shook visibly, stumbled and nearly fell down in the dock yesterday, after standing for more than two hours while his judgment was being read, insisted that he was not afraid to die by hanging. He also described the judgment as a conspiracy against him, and pledged to appeal the court decision.

The convict, whose expressions varied from nonchalance to worry as his defense was systematically dismantled by the court judgment yesterday defiantly added, "I am not afraid of death by hanging. If I beat people in my church, it is nobody's business. It is a conspiracy against me and I am going to appeal the judgment. Jesus Christ was hanged on the cross. It is an honour for me to die by hanging".

Justice Oyewole, while reading the land-mark judgment for three hours and thirty minutes (9.50am - 1.20pm) yesterday before a tense, packed courtroom, described the convict as a callous and wicked religious highway-man, who has committed assault on human dignity, freedom and liberty, in his deliberate murder of late Ann, said to be one of his main acolytes in the church while alive.

The presiding judge accredited and adduced evidential value to the testimonies of burn victims, who were eyewitnesses to what transpired at the convict's residence on July 22, 2006, pointing at the corroboration between the various testimonies delivered by the prosecution eye-witnesses.

The trial judge also discountenanced and rejected in its entirety all the testimonies of the nine defense witnesses in the matter, including King's own testimony, describing them as tissues of lies and fabrications contrived to conceal the truth from the court in the matter.

The judgment brought to a final end, a widely publicized trial which commenced on October 9, 2006 and ended on January 10 (yesterday), a total of ninety-four days; although the convict, by law, is entitled to appeal the judgment up to the Supreme Court.

Yesterday's trial was conducted under an unprecedented security arrangement, wherein all pedestrians and motorists coming into the Ikeja High Court premises were subjected to thorough screening and vehicles turned back as early as 7am.

The screening exercise was extended to the trial venue (Court 40) when stern-looking members of the Police Bomb Squad sent everyone out and spent over 20 minutes combing every nook and cranny of the court-room, before allowing people back into the court.

During the accelerated trial, twelve prosecution witnesses (including five eye-witnesses) were called by prosecuting officers of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice (led by Mrs. Jacquina Gbadebo, Director of Public Prosecution); nine witnesses including King himself were called by the defense team, led by Chief Mike Okoye; and a total of twenty-five exhibits were tendered as evidence before the court.

Back to Photo News main page