Biography of the infamous Rev. King

Many Nigerians have probably heard of the infamous Rev. King at least once in their lives. After all, his name has been in the news since 2006. Today, we want to revisit the Rev. King biography and talk about this man in detail.

What is known about Rev. King?

To be fair, not much is known about Reverend King. Most of us are aware that his actual name is Chukwuemeka Ezeugo. He was born on February 26 (year unknown) in Umulekwe village, Achina, Aguata, Anambra State. Ezeugo went to the Premier Primary School in Onitsha and received a degree in Psychology from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

At one point, he founded the Christian Praying Assembly. Up until 2006, Ezeugo was the church’s general overseer. Why exactly did he choose to be called Reverend King (similarly to what Martin Luther King Jr. was called) has remained unknown, same as the exact reason why he did what he did in 2006.

The many crimes of Reverend King

In September 2006, Rev. King appeared before the Lagos court. But what was he accused of? Let’s see.

First of all, according to numerous witnesses, Ezeugo was forcing his parishioners to do ungodly things. For instance, he made them use adult toys on themselves or serve him naked, and if he suspected someone of ‘witchcraft’ or any sort of sin, he flogged them with a cane.

Second, Rev. King was intimately involved with several female parishioners, even though some of them were married. A woman by the name of Kelechi King claimed that she had to undergo four abortions because of him. A man by the name of Edwin Akubue accused Rev. King of sleeping with his wife.

But most importantly, the main reason why he was brought to court was the fact that he set fire to a group of his own parishioners. As a result, one of them died, while others sustained serious injuries.

According to the witnesses and victims, Rev. King arraigned six members of his church before him and set them on fire for allegedly committing a sin of fornication. As a result of this ‘cleansing fire’, Kosisochukwu Ezenwankwo, Chiejina Olise, Vivian Ezeocha, Chizoba Onuorah and Jessica Nwene suffered serious burns, while the sixth victim, Ann Uzor, died from injuries sustained, 11 days after the incident.

That is why on September 26, 2006, Rev. King was tried for murder and several counts of attempted murder. Despite the fact that ten people testified against him, Ezeugo pled not guilty.

Trial and conviction

Even though the case seemed pretty straightforward, the final decision was not made until several months after. One of the reasons for that might have been the fact that the witnesses’ stories did not exactly line up.

Nevertheless, on January 11, 2007, Justice Joseph Oyewole announced that Rev. King was guilty of all the counts. This meant that he had to serve twenty years in prison for attempted murder, but he also had to be hanged for murder after serving his sentence.

In 2008, Rev. King and his lawyers filed an appeal, as the former still claimed he was not guilty. It took the Court of Appeal nearly five years to arrive at a decision on the appeal. On February 1, 2013, Judge Fatima Akinbami announced that the 2007 decision still stood, and nothing changed. Ezeugo was still refused bail and was still awaiting his death sentence.

When he took the matter further to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, he had to wait additional three years for the verdict. Ironically, Rev. King received it on his birthday, February 26, as the judges dismissed his appeal and affirmed his death sentence.

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Before and after his conviction, Rev. King had to be relocated numerous times. He started off at the Kaduna Prisons even before his sentence, where he soon began to organise prayer sessions and meet with influential people. This has caused some undue tension at the prison, which is why he was relocated.

After he was finally convicted, Rev. King was placed in the Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos. However, he did not last long there. While he was waiting for his appeal, he was accused of having intimate relations with the female prison guards. This was probably one of the reasons why he was relocated Kuje Prisons, Abuja, and then back to Kaduna.

All that said, some members of Rev. King church are still supporting their corrupted leader. Every year since his conviction, they have celebrated his birthday on February 26. They have continued believing in him and supporting the activity of his church.

However, the most interesting question that raises: is Rev. King dead or alive?

Taking into account the fact that there have not been any news about him since April 2017 (when there were talks of moving his execution to an earlier date), it is safe to assume that he is indeed still alive. Otherwise, the media would have been all over the story of his execution. After all, people are starving to see him brought to justice.

If we consider January 2007 to be the starting point of his 20-year sentence, this means that Rev. King has served almost 11 years of it. Unless someone decides to move his death sentence to a much nearer date, he still has nine years to go.

The Rev. King story seems like something straight out of a horror movie. It is terrifying to think about what this man was capable of. We hope he gets the punishment he deserves, so that nobody else will have to suffer through what his victims have gone through.

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