The Ebonyi State High Court in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, has sentenced a woman, Agnes Nwefuru, to death.

She is to die by hanging for killing her co-wife and seven step-children.

The Ebonyi State Government had in a suit no.HAW/13C/2017, brought against the defendant, accused her of setting ablaze the house of her co-wife, Felicia Nwefuru, killing her and her seven children in the process.

The plaintiff also said the accused burnt her own house during the act to hide her crime.

The plaintiff accused the convict of removing all her belongings and that of her children, ”took them to a safe place outside the house before committing the act.”

In 2017, eight members of a family were burnt to death following a mysterious fire that engulfed their house around 3 a.m. at Ogboji community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Two persons survived the inferno: the husband of both women, Sylvanus Nwefuru and Ukamaka Nwefuru, one of the victim’s daughters.

The fire razed the two thatched houses in the compound.

Delivering the judgement, the presiding judge, Uwabunkonye Onwosi, declared that the plaintiff proved that the defendant was guilty of the murder charge preferred against her.

“Nwefuru Agnes is found guilty of murder and is hereby convicted. The term of her sentence is that she be hanged by the neck until she is dead,” the judge ruled.