A NIGERIAN Christopher Ezeh and two others have been sentenced to 33 years imprisonment by a Cyprus court for their roles in the murder of 25-year-old Nigerian student Walshak Augustine Ngok, whose lifeless body was found in a forest along Haspolat- Tashkent highway.
The two other persons linked to the crime and also sentenced are a Ghanaian Nana Nkansah and a Zimbabwean Wayne Moyo.
Judge Şerife Kâtip of the Lefkosa High Criminal Court on Monday, May 10, sentenced Ezeh, who was the principal suspect, to 27 years in prison for singlehandedly killing his roomate Ngok, while Nkansah and Moyo were given 3 years each for helping to transport his body to the forest.
Court president Nüvit Gazi said on April 19, 2019, Ezeh and Ngok got into a fierce argument over a girl which led to a fight. This resulted in the victim being beaten to a state of unconsciousness and later dumped in the forest.
“Christopher reportedly beat Walshak Augustine severely which made him unconscious. He dragged him down the stairs of the apartment and took him to the forest area where he dumped him after seeing that he was no longer breathing, instead of going to the hospital,” Gazi told the court.
Ngok is among 100 Nigerians who have lost their lives on the Island of Cyprus and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) last August called for the country to be blacklisted over mysterious deaths occurring there without checks.
Chairman of the Commission Abike Dabiri-Erewa also warned parents to desist from sending their children to the country for studies, saying that Nigeria had no diplomatic ties with Cyprus and most of the courses offered by institutions in the country were unaccredited.
A judge in Kaduna State High Court Justice Amina Ahmad Bello, whose son was Ibrahim Khaleel Bello, died in the country under questionable circumstances, alleging that the vital organs of some of the students killed could have been harvested as her son’s stomach was opened and sutured when his corpse was released.