Farmers accused of culpable homicide discharged by court

A Katsina State High Court sitting in Malumfashi on Monday discharged and acquitted six farmers accused of  killing one Buhari Ibrahim at  ‘Yartalata village in Kafur Local Government Area.

Those discharged are Amadu Sa’idu, Yakubu Nuhu, Sani Salisu, Haruna Sule, Usman Mati and Muntari Rabi’u, all residents of ‘Yartalata and Yaribori villages  in the local council area.

The  discharged persons,  said to be members of  the Isan-Gona Vigilance Group, were alleged to have  sometimes  in February 2015 invited the deceased to a  pond in the bush and killed him on the ground that he was a thief.

The  deceased was said to have been  forcefully taken away from  the village head’s palace and his corpse was later found at the pond while no  satisfactory account of his death  was offered.

But in his judgment, Justice Abbas Bawale  held that the prosecution team led by Mr Aminu Garba  failed to prove  the case beyond reasonable doubt  as required by law.

Bawale said  the prosecution led five witnesses and tendered six exhibits during the trial.

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He said the defence counsel, Mr Tijjani Abdulhamid, had argued that the testimonies and exhibits did not prove the three ingredients  for  establishing culpable homicide punishable under section 221 of  the Penal Code Law.

Abdulhamid had argued that the ingredients were death of  a human being to take place, the death to be caused  by the  action of the accused person  and that the action be carried out  with intent to cause body injury or harm resulting in  death.

According to him, medical records as well as the object used for the crime were not presented to the court  while  testimonies were inadequate   in corroborating the death as some witnesses only saw the dead body.

Bawale consequently discharged and acquitted the accused, saying the prosecution  failed in establishing  its case.