By Ado Oyeyemi
An Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Essien Udim Local Government Area has sentenced a 36-year-old mother of four, Uwakmfon Isaac Jonah, to life imprisonment for attempting to murder a 12-year-old girl.
Justice Winifred Effiong handed down the sentence on Thursday after finding the defendant guilty of a one-count charge of attempted murder, contrary to Section 276 of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Volume 2, Laws of Akwa Ibom State, 2022.
The court heard that the victim had accompanied her mother, a pepper trader, to a local market where she was hawking fresh pepper when the convict approached her under the guise of buying the produce.
The girl testified that the woman persuaded her to leave the market, claiming an elderly customer wanted to buy pepper but was unable to come to the market. She added that the woman told her payment would be made at a nearby location where her mother was allegedly harvesting waterleaf.
According to the victim, she initially followed because the woman appeared respectable and was neatly dressed. However, she became suspicious after they entered a secluded bush and attempted to return.
She told the court that the defendant restrained her, gagged her with a piece of cloth to prevent her from raising an alarm, inflicted injuries around her eye and slit her neck before fleeing the scene, leaving her injured in the bush.
Jonah was arraigned on August 12, 2024, and pleaded not guilty after the charge was interpreted to her in the Annang language.
During the trial, the prosecution presented three witnesses and tendered both the defendant’s statement and that of the victim as exhibits.
In her defence, the convict admitted taking the child from the market into the bush but denied attacking her. She claimed she handed the girl over to another woman who was cultivating waterleaf in the area.
Delivering judgment, Justice Effiong dismissed the defence as lacking credibility, noting that the defendant failed to provide the identity, address or any description of the alleged woman.
The judge held that the prosecution established beyond reasonable doubt that Jonah lured the child into the bush, relying on the victim’s testimony, the injuries she sustained, the defendant’s admission that she took the child away from the market and the victim’s immediate identification of the defendant while receiving treatment at St. Mary’s Hospital, Urua Akpan.
Justice Effiong further ruled that the nature of the attack demonstrated a clear intention to kill, stressing that inflicting a deep cut on the neck of a vulnerable child could only lead to such an inference.
“The fact that the child survived does not diminish the intention behind the attack,” the court held.
The judge added that the defendant’s attempt to blame an unidentified third party failed to create any reasonable doubt regarding her guilt.
Although defence counsel appealed for leniency and urged the court to temper justice with mercy, Justice Effiong ruled that the law prescribes a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for attempted murder.
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He subsequently sentenced Uwakmfon Isaac Jonah to life imprisonment.
