A High Court in Gusau, Zamfars State, today sentenced
a police corporal, Anthony Azare, attached to Kaura Namoda
Police Division, to death by hanging for culpable homicide and trespass.
In his judgment, Justice Mukhtari Yusha’u, found Mr. Azare guilty of
causing the death of one Yusuf Abubakar on April 22, 2011.
Mr. Azare with two others
entered the residence of the deceased and shot him
with AK47 rifle in the shoulder and lower abdomen which resulted in
his death.
Justice Yusha’u, who relied on
the evidence of the wife of the deceased, Aisha Yusuf, held that her testimony
remained consistent.
The judge held that the evidence of
the defence was “disjointed and inconsistent”. He subsequently sentenced Mr.
Azare to death by hanging under Section 221 of the Penal Code.
He said Aisha told the
court that Mr. Azare used firewood to chase two of
the intruders out of his house and the refusal of the corporal to leave
led to the encounter, which resulted to his death.
He said that although the
accused alleged that he invoked Police Order 237 to use the gun in
self-defence, such order was wrongly applied.
The judge stressed that the police
were only allowed to use the order by shooting below the knee
while in self-defence.
He said the refusal of the
accused to take the decease to hospital after the
shooting and his exit from the house by jumping over the wall to
join his colleagues pointed to the fact that he intended to kill his
victim through “excessive force and brutality’’. (NAN)
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