A Plateau
High Court sitting in Barkin Ladi on Wednesday sentenced a 34-year-old
dismissed soldier, Sunday Umaru, to death by hanging, for hacking his lover to
death over a message found on her phone.
Justice
S.P. Gang handed down the sentence after finding Mr Umaru guilty of killing his
girlfriend, Charity Thomas, on January 23, 2016.
Delivering
the judgment, Mr Gang declared that Umaru “mercilessly took the life of Charity
Thomas in cold blood” and had to face the full wrath of the law.
“This
sentence is mandatory; the law states that any person convicted of murder shall
be punished with death by hanging.
“The
sentence of this court upon you is that you, Sunday Umaru, will be hanged by
the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy on your soul,’’ Gang declared.
NAN
recalls that Mr Umaru, an ex-military man, was dragged before the court on July
14, 2016, for allegedly killing his lover.
Mr Umaru, a married man, was a
private in the Nigerian Army and was serving at the Special Task Force (STF),
Sector 7, Barkin Ladi, at the time of the incident, on January 23, 2016.
At his
arraignment, Umaru faced a one-count charge of culpable homicide.
He was
specifically accused of killing his lover, Charity, who visited him from
Kaduna, by stabbing her with a knife in the stomach, slaughtering her
thereafter and dumping the body by the roadside.
According
to the prosecutor, Emmanuel Awe, the accused person committed the crime on
January 23, 2016, in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau.
Mr Awe,
while reading out the charge, said that Charity’s lifeless body was found the
next day, January 24, 2016, by neighbours and some soldiers, who trailed the
blood marks to the accused person’s house.
“Friends
of the accused, who were the military men that evacuated the body, also
recognised the girl as Umaru’s lover, who was seen with him the previous day.”
The
accused, he further told the court, quickly fled his base and returned to his
family at the Rukuba Barracks in Bassa Local Government.
The prosecutor said that a team of
military men mobilised and went after the accused and arrested him at his home
in the barracks, while in the company of his family.
He said
that during the investigation, the police discovered several gory pictures and
videos of the deceased that the accused took in his phone, immediately after
the murder.
NAN also
reports that the Nigerian Army quickly tried the accused and dismissed him
after finding him guilty of killing his lover.
Counsel to
the accused, David Adudu, told NAN after the judgment that he was not satisfied
with the death sentence death passed by the court.
“I will
get a copy of the judgment, study same and raise possible grounds for an
appeal,” he said.
- NAN
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