The Supreme Court has discharged and acquitted a Sergeant, Akawu Bala, who has been on death row for over 12 years.
Bala, who has been in Kaduna prison, was sentenced to death for murder by the General Court Martial of the Nigerian Army, reports Vanguard.
He was accused by the Nigerian Army of shooting one Isa Mohammed on December 9, 2012, when he was attached to African Petroleum Station at Sabon Tasha, Kaduna, with an AK47 rifle.
The victim of the gunshot was said to have died on December 10, 2012 at Saint Gerald’s Catholic Hospital in Kaduna.
Following his indictment, he was put on trial before the General Court Martial on a two-count murder charge punishable under section 106 of the Armed Forces Act 2014.
The military court, upon the conclusion of the hearing, found him guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging.
However on February 17, 2017, his appeal against the death penalty was upheld by the Kaduna Division of the Court of Appeal.
The appellate court held that the charge sheet upon which he was tried and convicted, was not signed by a General Commanding Officer as required by law.
Justice Obietonbara Daniel Kalo who read the Court of Appeal’s lead judgment declared the process of the trial and conviction of the Sergeant as a nullity but however refused to discharge him from the nullified trial, promoting further appeal to Supreme Court.
Delivering judgment in an appeal he lodged at the Supreme Court on March 16, 2017, a 5-man panel of Justices of the apex court, in a unanimous decision, discharged the appellant.
His lead Counsel, Mr. Reuben Okpanachi Atabo, SAN, had argued that since his client’s trial was declared a nullity, the Court of Appeal ought to have made a consequential order to discharge him.
The senior lawyer drew the attention of the apex court to section 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014, which he said prohibited the retrial of any military personnel after his trial has been voided and set aside.
On its part, the Nigerian Army, through its lead counsel, Mr. Isaac Udoka, opposed Atabo’s position and urged the Supreme Court to okay the retrial of the appellate, in the interest of justice.
In its judgement on the appeal marked SC/889/2017, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju of the Supreme Court, held that the proper thing was to discharge the appellant since his trial and conviction was already voided. Consequently, Justice Ogunwumiju invoked section 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 and set the convict free, stressing that the ordinary meaning of the section was that the appellant could no longer be stand another trial over the allegation against him.
She, therefore, ordered the immediate release of the convict from Kaduna prison where he had been on remand since 2012.
Aside from Justice Ogunwumiju, other Justices of the apex court that concurred with the lead judgement, were; Uwani Musa Abba Aji, Chidiebere Nwaoma Uwa, Stephen Jonah Ada and Abubakar Sadiq Umar.
Sergeant Bala had in his defence, claimed that he fired gun shot at the deceased, Mohammed, and one other person when they were walking towards him in the dark at the African Petroleum Station.
He told the court that his order for them to go back was rebuffed, prompting him to fire at them before they could capture him.
The convict claimed that he fired the gun at the two men because it was during the peak of Boko Haram activities in Kaduna, insisting that he became apprehensive when the duo kept coming at him in the dark despite his repeated shout for them to turn back.
