Man kills girlfriend, asks spiritualist to tie her ‘spirit’

THE Department of State Services has arraigned three persons before a Magistrate’s Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for the killing of an employee of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Miss Sophia Horsefall.

The suspects were said to have committed the offence on November 8, 2016, at Rumukparale in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

They were arraigned on three counts bordering on murder.

The defendants, who were identified as Sotonye Martin, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochuckwu, were accused of stabbing their victim to death with a jackknife.

The counsel for the DSS, Mr. C.S. Eze, said Martin (first defendant) lured and killed Horsefall at the residence of Oluche, the second defendant in the matter.

Eze told the court that the victim’s corpse was buried in a shallow grave, adding that Martin and Oluche invited the third defendant (Ugochukwu), a spiritualist, to the shallow grave to perform some rituals and tie the spirit of the victim.

He added that the victim had an eight-year-old daughter before she was killed.

The charges read, “That you, Sotonye Martin, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochukwu, on the 8th day of November 2016, at Rumukparale, in the Obio/Akpor LGA, within the jurisdiction of this court, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: murder of Sophia Horsefall, a member of staff of the NDDC, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 324 of the Criminal Code, Law of Rivers State, 1999.

“That you, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochukwu, on the 8th day of November 2016, at the place described above, did kill Sophia Horsefall, a member of staff of the NDDC, by stabbing her to death with a jackknife, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code, Law of Rivers State, 1999.

“That you, Sotonye Martin, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochukwu, on the date and at the place described above, abetted the murder of Sophia Horsefall, a member of staff of the NDDC, thereby commiting an offence contrary to Section 322 of the Criminal Code, Law of Rivers State, 1999.”

The defendants’ pleas were not taken.

The Chief Magistrate, F. Alikor, ordered that the accused be remanded in custody.

Explaining that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter, the chief magistrate directed that the case file be transferred to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and adjourned the matter indefinitely.