Man jailed 10 years for cutting off uncle’s wrist

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has sentenced a 31-year-old man, Sokariba Levi, to 15 years’ imprisonment for chopping off the left wrist of his uncle, Jacob Chuwkwu.The convict reportedly committed the crime on June 18, 2007 in the Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State.Levi was arraigned on three counts bordering on conspiracy, intention to cause grievous harm and inflicting grievous harm on another.

Justice George Omereji found Levi guilty of counts two and three after the prosecuting counsel proved his case beyond doubt.Omereji sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment with hard labour for counts two and five years’ imprisonment without hard labour for count three, and ordered that the sentence would run concurrently.But the defence counsel, E. O. Chinda, said the judgment would be appealed.Meanwhile, a 30-year-old fraudster, Gabriel Oluokun, was on Thursday sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, Oyo State, for defrauding a Taiwanese of $22,300 (about N8.4m).The convict was prosecuted by the Ibadan Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on amended six counts bordering on obtaining money under false pretences.

According to the commission, one Nduka Lucious alleged that the convict collected the sum from him in three installments on the agreement that he would supply 100 metric tonnes of sesame seeds to one Victoria Xhung, a China-based Taiwanese businesswoman, whom the petitioner (Lucious) represented in Nigeria.The convict failed to deliver the product as promised and failed to return the money.