The Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt sentenced and convicted Bestman Lekia, nicknamed Biggie, to death by hanging for killing four people and using their intestines to create a meal in a community in the state’s Khana Local Council.
Gbodu Nobaale, Etim Ekpe, Nenalebarri Mmeabe, and Loveday Mmeabe, were kidnapped and taken to a spot where they were slaughtered and their intestines used to create plantain supper in the Okwalie community in the Khana area in 2019, were said to have been killed by Lekia and others who are now at large.
In his decision, trial judge Justice Adolphus Enebeli found Lekia guilty of murder, kidnapping, cultism, and armed robbery.
The prosecution attorney, he claimed, proved his case with the appropriate evidence and presentations.
Even Lekia’s demeanor throughout his trial, according to Justice Enebeli, demonstrated that “he is a hardened criminal, cultist, and menace, who is supposed to be hung four times and die four times.”
He ruled that the defendant should be hung about his neck until his death was confirmed.
Chidi Ekeh, the state prosecution lawyer, described the verdict as “hard-nosed” and erudite, saying it will save both the Ogoni community and Rivers State.
Although Ekeh is disappointed that someone’s life has been taken, he insists that the law and the state would have failed if the convict had been allowed to go free without facing punishment.
