Late Singer Osinachi Nwachukwu’s Husband Sentenced To Death By Hunging

Peter Nwachukwu, husband to the later Nigerian gospel musician Osinachi Nwachukwu was sentenced to death by hanging after a Nigerian court found him guilty of culpable homicide in the death of Osinachi on April 2022.

According to the Vanguard, Peter was found guilty by Justice Nwosu-Iheme of a FCT High Court Wuse Zone 2 in Abuja on Monday.

The judge explained that the prosecution had shown that it had sufficient investigation and evidence to convict the late gospel artiste’s husband.

The trial into Osinachi’s controversial murder began in June 2022, just two months after she died in what was said to be a result of repeated abuse in her marriage.

Peter was arraigned on charges of culpable homicide, which carries the death penalty in Nigeria.

In the case, which has dragged on for over 3 years now, about 17 witnesses appeared in court to testify against Peter, including his two children who testified about how their father repeatedly abused their mother.

Vanguard reported that the prosecution also tendered 25 documents as exhibits before the court.

The defendant testified for the defence and further called four other witnesses and tendered four exhibits in his defence.

According to the publication, shortly before sentencing, the defendant’s counsel, Reginald Nwali pleaded with the court to be lenient in its judgment.

Similarly, the prosecution counsel, Mrs Aderonke Imala, urged the court to give force to the law as stipulated.

Justice Nwosu-Iheme subsequently sentenced Nwachukwu to death by hanging on Count 1, while he was sentenced to two years imprisonment each on all other counts he was found guilty of.

The Ekwueme hitmaker, Osinachi died at the age of 42 in April 2022 at a hospital in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

At the time, her husband and manager, Peter Nwachukwu, who was also a pastor, said she had been suffering from an undisclosed illness, but in the days that followed family members and friends alleged that she had died from injuries sustained from domestic abuse.

Following the conflicting statements about the cause of Osinachi’s death, on 11 April, police arrested Peter Nwachukwu and said they were waiting for autopsy results to help determine the cause of death.

He has denied all allegations of abuse, telling police he was not responsible for his wife’s death.

The allegations surrounding Osinachi’s death sent shivers across Christian communities in Africa and wider society, raising questions about gender-violence and the extent to which religious teachings and societal values condemn divorce, no matter the circumstances – owing to the alleged fact that she was advised not to quit her marriage on the basis of being a pastor’s wife and a gospel minister.