A High Court in Abakaliki has sentenced 30-year-old Boniface Abraham Edigbo to death by hanging for the murder of an 18-year-old secondary school student, whom he sexually assaulted over a two-year period and later poisoned to death.
The tragic case involved Ogbonna Joshua, an SS2 student at Community Secondary School, Amachi, in Izzi Local Government Area. According to court testimony, the convicted man had been in a secret homosexual relationship with the deceased since 2021.
Tension reached a breaking point in May 2023 after Joshua began to suffer anal injuries and confided in his school principal and some classmates, effectively outing their hidden relationship.
In what prosecutors described as a premeditated act to silence the victim, Edigbo lured the teenager to Edigbo Guest House on the night of Monday, May 22, 2023. The next morning, he poisoned a bottle of Fanta with Sniper insecticide and gave it to Joshua, who drank it and died shortly after.
Justice Ruth Okeh, delivering the judgement, declared Edigbo guilty of murder and sentenced him to death by hanging.
Prosecuting counsel, Mrs. Ijeoma Mike-Ajanwachukwu, praised the verdict, calling it a warning to others engaging in abusive and exploitative relationships, especially those that end in violence.
The court heard that after Joshua’s death, Edigbo attempted to flee the state. He initially confessed to a woman — claiming he did not intend to kill the boy but panicked after their relationship became public. Instead of assisting him, the woman alerted local youths, who apprehended him and brought him back to the hotel, where Joshua’s lifeless body was found in Room 006.
The case, which sparked outrage in the community, has once again drawn attention to the dangers of secrecy, abuse, and violent silencing of victims, especially in societies where conversations about sexuality are taboo and often met with hostility.
