by Oge Okonkwo

A police corporal, Anthony Azare has been sentenced to die by hanging for culpable homicide and trespass by a High Court in Gusau, Zamfara state.

Azare attached to  Kaura Namoda Police Division, was found guilty of causing the murder of one Yusuf Abubakar on April 22, 2011 by Justice Mukhtari Yusha’u.

Azare was said to have entered the residence of the deceased with two others, shot him with an AK47 rifle in the shoulder and lower abdomen which resulted in his death.

PM News reports:

Yusha’u, who relied on the evidence of the wife of the deceased, Aisha Yusuf, held that her testimony remained consistent.

The judge, held that the evidence of the defence was “disjointed and inconsistent’’, sentenced Azare to death by hanging under Section 221 of the Penal Code.

He said Aisha told the court that Azare used firewood to chase two of the intruders out of his house and the refusal of the corporal to leave led to the encounter, which resulted to his death.

He said that although the accused alleged that he invoked Police Order 237 to use the gun in self-defence, such order was wrongly applied.

The judge stressed that the police were only allowed to use the order by shooting below the knee while in self-defence.

He said the refusal of the accused to take the decease to hospital after the shooting and his exit from the house by jumping over the wall to join his colleagues pointed to the fact that he intended to kill his victim through “excessive force and brutality’’.