Abia Court Sentences Only Son to Death Over Alleged Phone Robbery in Igbere, Father Appeal To Governor Otti
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In 2020, a High Court sitting in the Igbere Judicial Division of Abia State sentenced Mr. Obadiah Mbaonu to death by hanging over allegations of armed robbery involving mobile phones.
The ruling was delivered by Justice Agwu Umah Kalu, who found the defendant guilty of the offence.
Years later, Mr. Mbaonu’s father, Mr. Mbaonu O. Mbaonu, a resident of Ibinaukwu community in Igbere, Bende Local Government Area, has appealed to the Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, to intervene in the matter. He insists that his son, his only male child, was wrongfully convicted and framed due to a prolonged land dispute.
“My son is innocent. He was deliberately set up,” the distraught father said.
Court records obtained by Promise Uzoma Okoro reveal that the case, marked Charge No. HIG/1C/2017, stemmed from Mr. Mbaonu’s arrest on January 1, 2017, when he was about 20 years old. He was subsequently arraigned before the court.
According to the prosecution, the defendant allegedly robbed Engineer Kalu I. Kalu at Igbere on January 1, 2017, while reportedly armed with a gun. Items said to have been stolen include a Nokia Lumia phone valued at ₦120,000 and a Huawei MT7-TL10 phone reportedly worth $600. Mr. Mbaonu pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him on October 12, 2017.
During the trial, the prosecution presented five witnesses and tendered four exhibits, including a Huawei phone said to have been recovered from the accused.
In delivering judgment in 2020, Justice Kalu ruled that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and imposed the mandatory death sentence. While pronouncing the verdict, the judge expressed regret over the lack of alternative sentencing options, stating:
“I wish I had the powers to impose a sentence other than death… The sentence of this court is that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”
Following his conviction, Mr. Mbaonu was moved from the Afara Correctional Centre in Umuahia to the Enugu Correctional Facility. His family claims that since the transfer, the case file has gone missing.
Five years after the judgment, Mr. Mbaonu’s father continues to plead for justice, urging Governor Alex Otti to review the case using his constitutional prerogative, maintaining that the conviction was driven by personal hostility linked to a land dispute rather than solid evidence.
