An Anambra State High Court sitting in the Nnewi Judicial Division has convicted and sentenced two men, Chidozie Obinna and Ifeanyi Onyido, to death by hanging for their direct involvement in criminal conspiracy, armed kidnapping, and causing severe, life-threatening bodily harm to a prominent local businessman, Lawrence Ezeifeka.
The milestone judicial verdict was delivered on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, by presiding judge Justice Vincent Agbata, reinforcing the judiciary's rigid stance against the devastating wave of abduction syndicates operating within the South-East region.
Crucially, the first defendant, Chidozie Obinna, was convicted and sentenced to death in absentia after he deliberately absconded and violated his bail conditions midway through the legal trial.
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The prosecution team, led expertly by Mrs. Mary Ukaekwe-Onyeaharam, successfully moved the court to sustain the proceedings under the strict statutory guidelines of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Anambra State, 2022.
The court heard detailed accounts of how the gang violently attacked Ezeifeka at his private residence in Ekwulumili within the Nnewi South Local Government Area on December 12, 2020.
The assailants brutally assaulted the victim, threw him down from the first floor of his residential building, and held him captive in a secret forest location for four days until his distraught family members delivered a cash ransom of N7.5 million.
Operatives of the Anambra State Police Command working in tight collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS) eventually tracked down the convicts.
While Ifeanyi Onyido vehemently denied the allegations, claiming he was also a victim, Justice Agbata ruled that explicit bank tracking records proved Onyido directly received a substantial payout from the extorted ransom, failing to offer any logical explanation for the sudden wealth.
#AnambraHigh Court #KidnappingVerdict #NnewiJudiciary #VincentAgbata #JusticeForEzeifeka #AnambraState #DSSNigeria #LawEnforcement
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