A Delta State High Court in Ogwashi-Uku has sentenced two men, Macaulay Desmond Oghenemaro and Enaike Onoriode, to death by hanging for the 2019 kidnapping and ritual murder of Elozino Joshualia Ogege, a first-class 300-level Mass Communication student at Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka.
The killers had given horrific details of how they plucked out her eyes and removed her breast and heart while she was still alive.
Justice Flora Ngozi Azinge, who delivered the judgment on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, found the two men guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, and murder after a legal battle that lasted about nine years.
A third defendant, Nwosisi Benedict Uche, was discharged and acquitted, while a fourth defendant, native doctor Robinson Obajero Ojokojo, died during the trial.
Ogege was lured under the pretense of meeting an agent to secure off-campus accommodation before she was abducted and killed in what prosecutors described as a ritual murder linked to suspected “Yahoo” activities.
The case suffered several delays and adjournments over the years, largely due to the repeated absence of counsel representing the first defendant. The trial eventually progressed after the adoption of final written addresses earlier this year.
Delivering the verdict, Justice Azinge convicted Oghenemaro and Onoriode for their roles in the kidnapping and murder of Ogege and sentenced them to death by hanging for the murder conviction.
Reacting to the judgment, the Solicitor-General of Delta State and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Omamuzo Erebe (SAN), who led the prosecution team, described it as a “landmark judgement.”
