May 21, (THEWILL) — A High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has sentenced a 33-year-old church usher, Ndifreke Isaiah Nelson, to death for murdering his girlfriend, Emem Monday Effanga, after a dispute over a mobile phone.
The trial judge, Justice Ekpo Ntekim, convicted Nelson on a two-count charge of murder and stealing, holding that the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court heard that the incident occurred on February 6, 2025, the convict’s birthday, when Nelson visited the deceased at her residence located at No. 102 Aka Road, opposite NEPA Line, Uyo.
Nelson, who lived on Udo Udoma Avenue, had reportedly gone to use Effanga’s phone to upload his birthday photographs on social media.
However, an argument later ensued over the phone, during which he allegedly slammed the victim’s head against a wall and strangled her to death.
After the killing, the convict fled with the deceased’s phone.
He was subsequently tracked and arrested on February 8, 2025, during a church tarry programme along Nsikak Eduok Avenue in Uyo at about 2 a.m.
During police interrogation, Nelson reportedly confessed to the crime.
Justice Ntekim sentenced the convict to death by hanging or lethal injection for murder, ruling that the punishment for stealing was subsumed in the murder sentence.
Our Correspondent reports that the convict was represented pro bono by a Lagos-based lawyer.
