A Nigerian court has sentenced a man to death by hanging for conspiring with others to kill his wife as part of a money-making magic ritual, a court official said on Tuesday.
Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme of the High Court in Owerri, in the south-east of the country, convicted 42-year-old Robert Ibrahim Chilaka on Monday of the murder of 25-year-old Cecilia in March 1998.
”You should be hanged by the neck until you are certified dead. May God have mercy on your soul,” court clerk Happiness Mbata quoted the judge as saying.
Chilaka, a Muslim, was said to have conspired with ritualists who had promised him one million naira ($9 000) to remove vital organs such as his wife’s right eye, right breast, genitals and parts of her stomach.
Mbata said the suspect took the organs to the ritualists, who immediately absconded without honouring their pledge to pay him.
After the killing, Cecilia’s remains were dumped in a river, the court heard.
Mbata said the suspect’s plea for mercy had been rejected by the judge.
”He is a devil in human skin. He does not deserve mercy. This is a typical case of man’s inhumanity to man,” the judge was quoted as saying.
Belief in witchcraft and magic is commonplace in Nigeria. Every year, dozens of people are killed in rituals designed to generate magical supplies of money.
On August 3, Nigerian police raided three pagan shrines in the Okija forest, not far from Owerri, and found at least 83 decomposing bodies and a stack of human skulls. — Sapa-AFP