A Rivers State High
Court has sentenced one Inspector Samuel Timothy of the Nigeria Police to death
by hanging for shooting and killing a sachet water dealer, Onyekachi Nwasouba.
The court’s ruling is
coming about five years after Nwasouba’s murder by the police at about 5am on
November 10, 2010 at No. 34, Old Aba Road, Port Harcourt.
Nwasouba, who was a
graduate of Industrial Chemistry, was branded an armed robber by the police while
he was on his way to distribute his products to customers within the Port
Harcourt metropolis.
The deceased was shot
dead by a team of policemen led by Timothy at the front of his residence, even
after he (Nwasouba) shouted to the hearing of the policemen that he was only a
pure water producer and not an armed robber.
But delivering his
judgment on Monday, the trial judge, Justice Adolphus Enebeli, declared that
the convict (Timothy) demonstrated an act of inhumanity through his action.
Justice Enebeli, whose
ruling took about three hours, however, discharged and acquitted one Corporal
Moses, who had been standing trial together with the convict.
The judge stated that
based on the testimonies of witnesses, including members of the patrol team in
the case, the convict was an “Inhuman, trigger-happy policeman, who
engages in murder; a hater of humankind and a merciless killer.”
Explaining that the
killing of the sachet water seller by the convict was deliberate, Justice
Enebeli, maintained that Timothy should die by hanging.
The trial judge added
that based on the law and the circumstance surrounding the death of the
graduate of Industrial Chemistry, he had no power to reduce the sentence.
“According to Section
319 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I do not have the
power to reduce your sentence. That, you, Inspector Timothy Sampson be hanged
on your neck until you are dead,” he said.
Justice Enebeli stated
that Corporal Moses was discharged and acquitted because it became clear that
the policemen on duty never conspired to kill the victim (Nwasouba).
It was, however, learnt
that the convict had served 33 years in the Nigeria Police and two years
remaining to retire before the incident occurred.
-Punch
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