By Editorial Staff 
A 400-level student of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Damian Okoligwe, has been sentenced to death by hanging for killing his girlfriend, Justina Nkemenna Otuene.
The death sentence was handed down to Damian by the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Friday.
Damian was a 400-level petrochemical engineering student when he murdered his girlfriend, Justina, a 300-level biochemistry student of the same institution, on October 20, 2023. He committed the act in his apartment located in Mgbuoba, Obio/Akpor Council Area of Rivers State.
Recall that the murderer was arrested after strangling Justina to death during an argument, cutting her body into pieces, packing the remains into a bag, placing it in a wheelbarrow, and heading to dispose of it when he was caught by neighbours who alerted the police.
The presiding judge, Chinwe Nsirim-Nwosu, held that the prosecution, led by the Rivers State Ministry of Justice, proved beyond reasonable doubt all three ingredients of murder: “that the deceased died, that it was the intentional act of the defendant that caused the death, and that the act was done with the knowledge that it would result in death.”
Sentencing Damian Okoligwe, the court described Okoligwe’s actions as “intentional, composed, calculated, coordinated, and evil.”
The elder brother of the deceased, Osatawaji Otuene, who expressed relief that justice was served, said, “It is certain that my sister didn’t die for nothing.”