By Amos Aar, Makurdi
THE Makurdi Judicial Division of the Benue State High Court presided over by His Lordship, the Honourable Justice A. I. Ityonyima, on Friday adjourned hearing till December 2, 2021 in the trial of alleged rapist, Mr Andrew Ogbuja, a senior lecturer with the Benue State Polytechnic (BenPoly), Ugbokolo.
Mr Ogbuja, who was in court on Friday, is alleged to have, along with his son, Victor who is currently at large, serially raped 13-year-old Elizabeth Ochanya Ogbanje while she was a ward under his care while attending primary school, a situation, the court had been told, led to a complicated health condition that eventually claimed her life.
54-year-old Ogbuja has been cooling his heels at the Makurdi Minimum Correctional Centre since October 2019 where he was remanded after the death of Ochanya. He is facing a four-count charge bordering on rape and murder of Ochanya.
Ochanya was, until her death, a JSS 1 student at the Federal Government College, Gboko, Benue State.
At the resumed hearing on Friday, counsel to Mr Ogbuja, A. A. Onoja, who spoke with National Record’s Makurdi correspondent shortly after the court sitting, said the trial could not hold as the prosecution was bereaved and therefore could not appear in court.
“We came here to continue the defence because it’s the turn of the defendant now to tell the Court his own version of the story. We have taken some witnesses; we have even taken the defendant himself.
“As the matter stands now, there are two witnesses from the side of the defence. They came today for the court to hear them but unfortunately, the prosecution was bereaved and there is no way those people can go ahead without the lawyer from the state coming in and that is why we agreed for 2nd of December for the witnesses to be here and the matter to be heard.”
The state had in September rested its case, after calling a total of eight witnesses made up of medical experts, Ochanya’s family members and police officers who investigated the crime.
The defence had opened its case on October 8, 2021.
