One Monday Effiong has been sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly beating his 68-year-old father to death.
The young man who is a few months away from his 40th birthday reportedly accused his biological father of being a wizard.
Reports had it that the accused had descended on his father after his wife made a complaint against her father-in-law.
Without hesitation, Effiong reportedly went after his father and punched his face with deadly blows and pushed him to the ground.
The prosecution told the court that even when a neighbour carried the sexagenarian into his room, the convict locked up the door to his father’s room and returned the following day, with a patent medicine dealer, only to find the father dead in the room
Effiong is said to have committed the offence on 27th May 2017.
Ruling on the case on Tuesday, Akwa Ibom State High Court presided over by Justice Bassey Nkanang sentenced the bricklayer to life imprisonment.
Justice Nkanang found the Mbiakpan Atan indigene of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State guilty of the charges against him.
The convict as read before the court is also said to have accused his father of being the cause of delay for his wife to conceive.
In his judgement, the judge held that the invitation of the patent medicine dealer by the convict was an indication that, despite the unwarranted and unlawful assault on his father, he had no intention of causing his death, nor did he know that death would be the probable consequence of his action.
“Whereas it was the act of the accused person that resulted in the death of the deceased, the six circumstances provided for in section three-two-three of the Criminal Code, Laws of Akwa Ibom State, which identifies what constitutes murder, appear to be absent in the entire scenario of the case,” The Court held.
Justice Nkanang further held that “the position of the Court, on the extent to which evidence at trial, has established the three ingredients of murder, is that, the deceased is dead and the act of the accused person is responsible for the death, there is insufficient evidence to prove the third mandatory ingredient in a charge of murder.
“The position of the law is that the particulars of the lesser offence must be capable of being subsumed in the original charge such that it is possible to carve out the lesser offence from the particulars of the original charge, which was murder”.
Justice Nkanang further said, “it is this law that vests the trial court with the power to convict for a lesser offence, where the ingredients of the said the lesser offence is contained in the aggravated charge and are found proved.”
The Court resolved the issue in favour of the prosecution and convicted Monday Effiong Akpan for manslaughter and sentenced him to imprisonment for life, Naija News reports.
