An Akwa Ibom High Court Sentences a Living Faith Church Pastor to Death
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A 29-year-old Prince Emmanuel Umoh, who was the resident pastor of Winners Chapel, A.K.A. Living Faith Church, has been sentenced to death by the Akwa Ibom State High Court on Thursday for the murder of his landlord, Gabriel Bassey Edward.
Justice Gabriel Ette, the sitting high court judge, convicted Umoh for stabbing Mr. Edward, who was his landlord and also a 500-level civil engineering student. Several reports show that Edward’s academic records were released after his death, and he graduated with first-class honors.
According to several reports, the late Edward, who was a student of the University of Uyo, had relocated to take over his late mother’s property at Ifa Ikot Ubo, which was closer to his school.
His mother had started a nursery school on the property and built a hall attached to a two-bedroom apartment. This hall was meant to be for school purposes. But it was later rented out to Living Faith Church by his father for the sum of N150,000 annually.
Edward and his younger brother were living in the said two-bedroom apartment while overseeing other structures in the estate.
The defendant, Prince Emmanuel Umoh, was posted to the Living Faith Church as a resident pastor. However, on 21st December, 2020, the defendant was seen entering the estate, and later on, reports of someone shouting “Jesus!” were heard from the premises by neighbors and passersby.
Afterwards, Umoh was seen leaving the compound with blood stains on his white garment, claiming he fell down while trying to hang a banner. There were no visible signs of the deceased until 26th December, 2020, when they found his body wrapped up in a mat with multiple stab wounds and the knife beside him.
The defendant was shortly arrested, as he was the last person seen with the deceased and had a not-too-convincing explanation of the blood stains on his garment.
The defendant pleaded not guilty and was arraigned on 6th December, 2021, on a one-count charge of murder.
While in court, the prosecution presented six witnesses to the judge and named Edward’s father, Emana Bassey Edward, who testified as the first prosecution witness (PW1).
PW1 told the court that not so long after the church started its operations, they requested to use the two-bedroom flat to store church chairs and other items inside for security reasons, as the hall lacked doors and windows.
They agreed, and the church request was approved, but that soon turned out to be problematic, as when the defendant needed to access the church chairs, the deceased was not always at home and needed to return back to open up the flat. This happened a couple of times.
After several complaints, PW1 directed his late son to give a spare key to Umoh, as he felt that would solve the issues brewing between them.
The prosecution led evidence that after the key was handed over, items belonging to the deceased’s late mother, including clothes, plates, and other valuables, began to go missing.
All suspicion pointed to the defendant, who then claimed he had lost the spare key given to him.
The matter was reported to the church’s senior pastor, Owoidoho Etuk Akpan, who testified as a defense witness and who provided N5,000 to enable the deceased to change the locks.
Following the change of the locks, there were no more items that were reported missing. However, another wave of tension rose between the deceased and the defendant over the rent payment of the hall being used by the church.
Justice Gabriel Ette described the case as “very sympathetic,” as he recounted the efforts of Edward’s late mother, who developed the property and built a school for educational purposes just before she left this world.
The court found the prosecution case very valid and proved beyond every reasonable doubt.
Justice Ette said, “Life is sacred, and those who represent God on earth should teach that. It is an irony and quite appalling when a man who claims to be the representative of the divine on earth stoops so low as to denigrate the very essence of his calling and take someone’s life in the premises of the church.”
“Having found you guilty as charged, I hereby sentence you to death by hanging,” the judge concluded.
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