For unlawful shooting and killing of a three year old girl,an Ikeja
High Court in Lagos, on Thursday sentenced a police officer, Ikechukwu
Nwabueze, to death by hanging.
Nwabueze, who was arraigned on June 15, 2010 by the Lagos State
Directorate of Public Prosecutions, had pleaded not guilty to the
charges brought against him but after much investigations, Justice
Olabisi Akinlade, found the 35-year-old former policeman guilty of
murder charge.
Narrating the ugly incident that led to the arrest and prosecution of
Nwabueze, Mrs Olabisi Ogungbesan, the Director of Public Prosecution,
said the ex corporal 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 the incident occurred at Obanle Aro bus stop,
Ketu-Alarape at about 9.30 pm when little Kasufara muritala and her
parents were returning from a naming ceremony. Suddenly, they were
attacked by some policemen. Saliu Muritala, the girl’s father was hit on
his hand while the little girl received a straight bullet on her head.
Luckily, Mrs. Muritala escaped unhurt.
On sighting the bleeding father and his dead daughter, the five
policemen from Alarepe Police Station, including Nwabueze, who caused
the mayhem fled from the check point.
In her judgment, Akinlade held that the prosecution proved its case against Nwabueze beyond all reasonable doubt.
She disclosed that 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 intention to kill the deceased, which she saw as a
flimsy excuse and not acceptable by law.
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