An Ikeja High Court presided over by Justice Olabisi Akinlade has sentenced a 35-year old Police Corporal, Okechukwu Nwabueze, to death for killing a three-year old girl, Kaosara Muritala three years ago in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

Okechukwu was alleged to have shot and killed the girl on 5 April, 2009 at a police check point located at Obanle-Aro near Mr. Biggs in Alapere, Ketu.

Three witnesses including the deceased father, a police officer and Professor John Obafunwa, a pathologist testified against the accused person.

Delivering Judgment in the matter today, Justice Akinlade held that the prosecution had proved the case against the former police officer beyond reasonable doubt.

The Judge noted that in his defence the convict gave contradictory account of what happened on the fateful day but admitted that he expended two rounds of ammunition that day.

The judge also noted that the convict claimed that he shot into the air to scare the driver of the car who allegedly refused to stop.

In his testimony, the deceased father claimed that the police never stopped them and that he only heard a gunshot few metres away from the checkpoint.

In her final judgment, Justice Akinlade upheld the case of the prosecution and subsequently sentenced Corporal Okechukwu Nwabueze to death by hanging.

shadeltec: I hope this will stand in appeal, because it is man slaughter and not murder. I hope this not a deliberate platform to make room to through the case away in appeal.

SimonAndal: Killing the guy doesn't bring the girl back. An eye for an eye makes the world blind!

lat4real:


MUMU

Onlytruth: One of those rare good judgements from Nigerian courts!
I wish that all people who have ever been killed by Nigerian security personnel will receive a similar justice at the courts!

Here I stand!

onlineadejoh: Two wrongs cannot make a right, I feel pained that a little girl who knows nothing died as a result of the recklessness of this policeman, but hanging him doesn't sound justifiable cos the did is done already. He could be subjected to other forms of hard punishment rather than this 'teeth for taath' approach.

Alani
September 27, 2012 - 6:43 pm

Ibo facing Yoruba justice, by Yoruba judge in Yoruba land. This cse is one of culpable homicide .
Not pure murder in the line duty.

naptu2: 1) Circa 1987, policemen at a check point at the junction of Adeniji Adele and Idumagbo Avenue shot at a danfo bus which they claimed refused to obey their order to stop (the danfo driver would later claim that the policemen tried to extort money from him). The bullets missed their target, instead hitting and killing Saka and Momodu Dawodu.

Lagos Island erupted in violence. Policemen had to ditch their uniform and change into mufti to avoid being lynched. The government was desperate to quell the riot because Lagos Island was just a few kilometres from the Presidency at Dodan Barracks. Reinforcements were called in. You would not believe the amount of tear gas that was released around Central Lagos (the tear gas lead to the death of Alhaji Lateef Jakande's father).

Two policemen were arrested. One pleaded guilty and was quickly hanged. The other pleaded not guilty, lost the case and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. He was hanged in 1989.

2) This particular policeman faces a very long time on death row, because the government cannot hang him. According to law, only a licensed hangman, who has gone to the hangman school, can hang a person sentenced to death in Nigeria. There are no licensed hangmen in Nigeria. The last time somebody was hanged in Nigeria was in 1995 (Ken Saro-Wiwa and colleagues). A licensed hangman was brought in from Ghana to hang them. There are no licensed hangmen in Ghana anymore. Since then, everybody that has been sentenced to death in Nigeria has had to spend an indefinite period on death row. A lawyer is trying to get all of them freed on the grounds that waiting indefinitely for death is cruel and inhuman punishment.

Note: Hanging is the only legal means of executing a person in Nigeria. The military used death by firing squad, but that means of executing a person is not in our statute books.

tellwsdom: No better news again for this forum..If e no be jim iyke is eating popcorn, it wld be genevieve has started smoking or tondo dike has just drew tattoo on her boobbss--WTF?? I just pray seun realises this dust all over his page