By Chioma Iruke
The case of Uduak Akpan, the confessed killer of Iniubong Umoren, has been adjourned for an accelerated hearing to November 1, 2, 4, 10, 11, 15, 16 and five days in December by an Akwa Ibom State High Court.
The presiding judge, Justice Bennett Illamoh, also struck out the application for bail for the second accused, Frank Akpan, who is the father of Uduak, the first accused, saying that the application came on summon rather than on motion.
Recall that Uduak had confessed to killing Umoren, the Akwa Ibom graduate lured out of her home with a fake job interview. Umoren was raped and killed in April on the outskirts of Uyo by Uduak who the police in Akwa Ibom State described as a serial rapist.
She was buried in a shallow grave in the Akpan’s family house where the crime was committed.
The suspect who was paraded alongside his father said he killed the girl in self-defence and not intentionally.
“I invited her for a job and I asked her whether she can work on a farm as secretary. I told her that I wanted to sleep with her first. She agreed on a condition that I will use a condom which I also agreed to. She became furious when I started removing the condom, and she attacked me. I was bleeding so I needed to defend myself by hitting her which led to her death,” he had said.
He claimed she used a nearby stabiliser to hit him in the “head and bit me on my left-hand finger.
“While I was bleeding, in a bid to stop her, I used the stabiliser to hit her and when I hit her, she fell and started bleeding and thereafter, she died,” he added.
