A Niger State High Court sitting in Minna has convicted a 32-year-old man, Abubakar Muhammad Buba, to life imprisonment for killing his biological father.
He was arraigned on October 9, 2023 on four counts, including charges of criminal misappropriation and culpable homicide punishable under Sections 224 and 397 of the Penal Code Law, reports Saturday Tribune.
The presiding judge, Justice Mohammed S.A. Mohammed, who delivered the judgement, stated that the prosecution had proven the charge of culpable homicide under Section 224 of the Penal Code, which is “not punishable by death against the convict.”
Abubakar Buba was arrested by police operatives in the Korokpan area of Chanchaga village in Niger State when he attempted to collect money from the sale of land belonging to his late father, Alhaji Mohammed Buba.
He was alleged to have stabbed his father, dismembered the body, packed it into a polythene bag, and dumped it beside Tagwai Dam in Chanchaga village.
The convict was further accused of contacting his late father’s friend, Hon. Mohammed S.D. Mambo, the Niger State Chairman of the Nigerian Miners Association, to claim that his father had been kidnapped and that ransom money was needed for his release.
According to the charge sheet obtained by this reporter, the convict’s father’s friends rallied to raise money by selling the father’s landed properties, as requested by the convict.
Subsequently, the convict informed his father’s friends that the kidnappers had released his father but that he was in poor health due to injuries allegedly inflicted by his assailants, including being forced to drink acid. He claimed his father required urgent surgery at Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital, Abuja, where he was allegedly receiving treatment.
However, upon further investigation, the father’s friends, who were members of the Miners Association of Nigeria in Niger State, discovered that the father was neither kidnapped nor admitted to any hospital.
They promptly filed an official complaint with the Nigeria Police, who swiftly launched an investigation, arrested the convict, and later arraigned him for prosecution.
The prosecuting counsel, Barrister Halima Ahmed of the Office of the Attorney General, called six witnesses to testify during the trial. The witnesses included Inspector Victor Jiya, Hon. Mohammed S.D. Mambo, Murtala Abdullahi, Usman Yahaya, and Yakubu Sa’idu.
In a judgement session that lasted two hours, Justice Mohammed S.A. Mohammed declared, “I hold that the convict was the last person seen with the deceased and has not satisfactorily explained to the court that someone else, and not him, killed the deceased.
“The circumstantial evidence is very overwhelming and is resolved against the convict. Issues two and three were also resolved against the convict.
“Before I pronounce my sentence, let me state that all elements of the offence of culpable homicide punishable by death have been established beyond reasonable doubt against him.
“However, the state decided to arraign him for a lesser offence for reasons best known to them. Unfortunately, despite the unlimited jurisdiction of this court, my hands are tied, as I can only sentence the convict for the lesser offence filed before the court. I cannot say more than that.”
