Court Sentences Police Corporal To Death

An Ikeja High Court in Lagos on Thursday
sentenced an ex-police corporal, Ikechukwu
Nwabueze, to death by hanging for killing a three-
year-old girl, Kasufara Muritala. Justice Olabisi Akinlade found the 35-year-old former policeman guilty of the murder charge preferred against him.
Nwabueze, who was arraigned on June 15, 2010 by
the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions
had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Mrs. Olabisi Ogungbesan, the Director of Public
Prosecution, said that Nwabueze on April 5, 2009 at
a police check-point at Ketu-Alapere, Lagos, shot at
a Nissan Sunny car conveying the deceased and her
parents.
Ogungbesan said that the incident occurred at
Obanle Aro bus stop, Ketu-Alarape at about 9.30p.m
when Kasufara and her parents were returning
from a naming ceremony.
She said the father of the deceased, Saliu Muritala,
was hit on his hand while the little girl, who was
sitting on the back seat with her mother, was shot
in the head.
The DPP said the five policemen from Alarepe
Police Station, including Nwabueze, fled from the
check-point after the father came out of the car
with the lifeless body of the deceased.
In her judgment, Akinlade held that the prosecution
proved its case against Nwabueze beyond
reasonable doubt.
She said the defendant in his confessional
statement to the police after his arrest, had
admitted shooting at the rear of the car but not with
the intent to kill the deceased.
The judge held that Nwabueze's attempt to deny
that the statement was not made "voluntarily as an
after-thought aimed at misleading the court.
"It is trite law that a confessional statement of a
defendant is relevant and should not be discarded
merely on the basis that he had retracted the
statement during trial." the judge said.
Akinlade said the testimony of the Chief
Pathologist, Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital, Prof. John Obafunwa, who conducted the
autopsy on the deceased, was not contradicted
during the trial.
The judge said Obafunwa had testified that the
cause of death was as a result of missile injuries to
Kasufara's skull.
She said the ballistic report presented by another
witness, Sgt. Tamimu Jerimiah, confirmed that the
deceased was killed from the bullet fired from an
Ak-47 rifle calibre 7.62 mm, assigned to Nwabueze.
Akinlade said, "If indeed he shot the car in the rear,
the bullet would not have hit the occupants of the
car.
"In my view, by virtue of the defendants training as
a police officer, he cannot claim that he did not
know the probable consequences of his action.
"I, therefore, hold that the defendant had the
intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to the
occupants of the car when he fired at the back
windscreen of the car.
"I find him guilty as charged.''
The judge also dismissed an appeal by Nwabueze's
counsel, Mr A.O. Omodele, for the court to temper
justice with mercy and be lenient in its sentence.
She noted that the defendant had murdered the
little girl in cold blood, stressing that it was a clear
example of recklessness being perpetrated by
policemen on innocent citizens.
She added, "Only God knows what, Kasufara
Muritala, would have become in future. I hope
members of the Nigerian Police will learn a lesson
from him and stop extra-judicial killings.
"The sentence of the court upon you Nwabueze is
that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead
and may the Lord have mercy on your soul."