The Anambra State High Court has convicted and sentenced two men, Emmanuel Obi and Stanley Chukwuebuka Eziorah, to life imprisonment for conspiracy, burglary and stealing in Charge No. O/44C/2022.
The prosecution, led by R. C. Aganama-Onyeze, Chief State Counsel at the Anambra State Ministry of Justice, told the court that the defendants, who worked as domestic servants and sales assistants to a beverage dealer in Onitsha, committed the offences in February 2021.
According to the prosecution, on February 5, 2021, the defendants left their employer’s residence early in the morning with their bags packed. When questioned by the complainant’s son, they reportedly said they had quit their jobs without prior notice.
They subsequently proceeded to the complainant’s shops at Relief Market and Relief Modern Market, Onitsha, where they allegedly deceived the salesgirl on duty into leaving the premises by telling her that her madam urgently needed her at another shop.
The prosecution said that immediately after the salesgirl left, the defendants broke into a safe and stole ₦2.3 million, which the complainant had earlier counted with them before securing it.
The salesgirl raised the alarm, prompting neighbours who sighted the defendants to chase them. The defendants reportedly abandoned a bag containing their clothes and personal belongings, which was recovered and handed over to the complainant’s in-law.
In a second incident on February 20, 2021, the defendants allegedly burgled the complainant’s residence, breaking open the ground-floor doors and the main entrance gate.
The complainant discovered the incident at about 6:00 a.m., when she found that the living room had been ransacked and several valuables stolen.
The stolen items included expensive alcoholic drinks such as Moët, Glenfiddich, Dom Pérignon and Black Label, 20 pairs of designer shoes, ladies’ wedge sandals, T-shirts, two bags of rice, a new wheelbarrow allegedly used to convey the stolen property, a bag of tattoos, motor discs and an ornamental eagle bird.
The items were valued at ₦4.438 million.
The complainant reported the incident to the police, who recovered some of the stolen items from the defendants’ residence during investigations.
The defendants also reportedly led investigators to a native doctor’s shrine, where the ornamental eagle bird had been sold. The item was recovered and released to the complainant on bond.
The prosecution further told the court that the defendants admitted consuming some of the stolen alcoholic drinks with friends during a party.
After evaluating the evidence, the presiding judge, Justice Sylvester Odili, held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The court consequently convicted the defendants and sentenced them to three years’ imprisonment for conspiracy, six years’ imprisonment for stealing and life imprisonment for burglary.
The Anambra State Ministry of Justice reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that offenders are brought to justice and that the lives and property of citizens remain protected under the law.
The ministry also commended R. C. Aganama-Onyeze, Esq., Chief State Counsel, for her diligence and professionalism in prosecuting the case.
