Justice K.I. Okpe of the Enugu State High Court has delivered a verdict in the case of the murder of 27-year-old makeup artist, Ijeoma Nneke, sentencing Chiamaka Ifezue to death by hanging for her role in the crime.
The court’s decision comes after Ifezue and her brother, Chukwuemeka, were arraigned on charges of conspiracy and murder in 2021. The siblings were accused of forcing Nneke to ingest a poisonous substance that led to her demise, subsequently dumping her body in the Maryland axis of the Enugu metropolis and pouring a corrosive substance, suspected to be acid, on it.
While Chukwuemeka was discharged following a no-case submission, Justice Okpe found Ifezue guilty of murder, ruling that the prosecution had proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
During the trial, the court admitted several police exhibits related to the alleged murder, including currency, electronic devices, makeup tools belonging to the deceased, and the key to a car believed to have been used to transport Nneke’s body.
Prosecution Witness 7, Sgt. Udeze Oguguo, testified regarding the recovery of these exhibits from the crime scene and presented WhatsApp and text messages exchanged by the deceased with her fiancé and girlfriend, respectively, at the time of the incident.
