BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
A 27-year-old man, Uzochukwu Ewogu, has been remanded in the Abakaliki Correctional Centre for allegedly pushing his colleague into a water-filled mining pit in Ebonyi State.
Ewogu, in a suit marked MAB/645c/2021, was accused of causing the death of one Nwabuife Udenyi on September 8, 2021 at Amaji Ameka Community in Ezza South Local Government Area of the state.
The offence is said to be punishable under Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code, Cap 33, Volume 1 Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria 2009.
The trial magistrate, Lynda Ogodo, ordered that the defendant be remanded at the correctional centre on the ground that the offence was beyond the jurisdiction of a magistrate’s court.
The matter was adjourned to October 25, 2021 for report of compliance at the high court
The Point gathered that the defendant, the deceased and three other youths, had gone to swim at the abandoned mining pit in their neighbourhood on the said day.
Others enjoyed the swimming spree except the deceased who merely took his bath at the bank of the pit for lack of swimming skills. But the defendant, who wanted him to share in the fun, allegedly pushed him from the height into the water to compel him to swim, not knowing that he actually lacked the skill.
The one-count-charge against him read, “Uzochukwu Ewogu on the September 8, 2021 at Amaji Ameka community in Ezza South Local Government Area, under the jurisdiction of this court did unlawfully cause the death of one Nwabuife Udenyi by pushing him into a mining pit filled with water and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code, Cap 33, Volume 1 Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria 2009.”
