Dismissed Soldier To Die By Hanging For Killing Girlfriend

A Plateau State High Court sitting in Barkin Ladi on
Wednesday sentenced a 34-year-old dismissed solider, Sunday Umaru, to
death by hanging, for hacking his lover to death over a text message, he
found on her phone.

Justice S.P. Gang handed down the sentence
after finding Umaru guilty of killing his girlfriend, Charity Thomas, on
January 23, 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.

NAN recalls that 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, on January 23, 2016.

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.

According
to the prosecutor, Emmanuel Awe, the accused person committed the crime
on January 23, 2016 in Barkin Ladi Local Government area of Plateau
State.

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.”

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.

NAN also reports that 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, told NAN 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.