Sign Rev. King’s death warrant, neighbours beg Ambode

Revd King

Barely 24 hours after the Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence passed on a Lagos-based pastor and the General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Rev. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, aka Rev. King, some of his neighbours have asked for his immediate execution.
The landlords appealed to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, to sign Rev. King’s death warrant to hasten the process.
A five-man bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice Walter Onnoghen, in its unanimous judgement, had on Friday dismissed the appeal by the cleric challenging the verdict of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, which had affirmed the conviction and the sentence passed on him by the Lagos High Court.
Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, who read the lead judgement of the court, resolved all the 12 issues raised by Rev. King in his appeal against him and dismissed the entire appeal for lacking in merit.
The judgement dealt a final blow on the last effort by Rev. King to free himself from the death sentence, which had been hanging around his neck for over nine years.
A next door landlord in Ajao Estate where the church is based applauded the Supreme Court for the judgement, saying he expected it.
The landlord, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Now, we need the governor to quickly sign the papers, because if he does not, we are in trouble.
“The church members had been saying they would take over our houses and they had been threatening to deal with some of us. They ask us to just wait for his return and see what would happen.
“That was why immediately we heard the news of the judgement, we were happy. In fact, if I cannot talk for others, I can tell you that I am very happy. I am happy because it marks the end of a group constituting a nuisance to us.”
Another landlord, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said he wants Ambode to sign the death warrant as soon as possible.
“I hope the governor will not be afraid of signing it. He should do it on time.
“The truth is that the church has not impacted the community in any way. We are waiting for what will happen next after this.
The Lagos State Government, in a statement on Friday through the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, said the judgement affirmed the seriousness of the state government in fighting crime.
Church members sad
It was earnt that the news of the apex court judgment shook the membership of the church, as many of them wailed openly.
A resident, Chidi, said many of the church members could not contain their grief and disappointment.
He said, “It was a bad news for the church. Most of them have been boasting that we would see what would happen when he returns but I saw many of them crying openly after the news broke (that his death sentence had been upheld), while others tried to hide their grief.”