A dismissed soldier was, on Wednesday, sentenced to death by hanging for hacking his girlfriend to death over a text message he found on her phone.
Justice S.P. Gang of Plateau State High Court sitting in Barkin Ladi sentenced 34-year-old Sunday Umaru to death after finding him guilty of killing his girlfriend, Charity Thomas.
The soldier committed the dastardly act on 23 January 2016.
Delivering the judgment, 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.
Umaru, an ex-military man, was dragged before the court on July 14, 2016, for allegedly killing his lover.
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.
At his arraignment, Umaru faced a charge of culpable homicide.
He was specifically accused of killing his lover, Charity, who visited him from Kaduna State, by stabbing her with a knife in the stomach, slaughtering her thereafter and dumping the body by the roadside.
The prosecutor, Emmanuel 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.”
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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 with his phone, immediately after the murder.
The Nigerian Army quickly tried the accused and dismissed Umaru after finding him guilty of killing his lover.
Counsel to the accused, Mr David Adudu, said 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)