MURDER IN HOTEL: SUSPECT PLEADS NOT GUILTY,MATTER ADJOURNED TO 2ND JUNE FOR PROSECUTION TO OPEN CASE. (PHOTO).

Murder In Hotel: Suspect Pleads Not Guilty, Matter Adjourned To 2nd June For Prosecution To Open Case

Kingsley Ogbonnaya, the suspect standing trial in the murder of Miss Chinenye Promise Nwoye, an undergraduate of University of Benin, UniBen, has pleaded not guilty to the charge brought against him by the Anambra State Government.

On 27th August 2020, Miss Nwoye, who hails from Ire village Abba, was reportedly strangled to death inside room fifty-seven in Akuu Hotel in Abagana in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, after she was lured to the facility for the dastardly act.

Following the arrest of one principal suspect, Kingsley Ogbonnaya, aged twenty-four then, and from Amovu, Arochukwu in Abia State, the Anambra State Ministry of Justice filed papers at the Anambra State High Court, Neni for the commencement of his trial, while the state police command said manhunt for the other fleeing suspect, Chinedu Igwilo, from Adazi Nnukwu in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State was ongoing.

Nine witnesses had been lined up by the Prosecution counsel to prove that the suspects are guilty as charged, but nationwide strike action embarked upon by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, and widespread insecurity then led to the delay in the trial of the suspects, as the latter caused nonproduction of inmates in courts.

At the resumption of the trial, the suspect in detention, Ogbonnaya, pleaded not guilty to the murder charge brought by the state government, and the matter was adjourned to the 2nd of June 2023 for the Prosecution counsel to open case.