Adamawa State High Court of Justice presided by the Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Hafsat Abdulrahaman, has discharged and acquitted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), ASP Usman Hassan accused of killing 4 people. News Platform
Justice Hafsat discharged and acquitted ASP Usman, the DPO Kiri Divisional Police headquarters in Shelleng LGA, after he was tried and found not guilty of all the 3 count charges preferred against him.
He was earlier arraigned before the court for the offences of conspiracy, culpable homicide punishable with death and extortion contrary to sections 61(1), 191 and 282 of the penal code law which he pleaded not guilty.
ASP Usman and 6 others including Sgt Audu Kari, Sgt Mohammed Batu, Yusuf Abdullahi, Cpl Musa Luka, Hassan Haruna, and Mohammed Bitrus(all at large) allegedly conspired and caused the death of Buba Grema, Jauro Hampeto, Misa Bakari and Yusuf.
According to the prosecution, ASP Usman and 6 others murdered the deceased by tying their hands and legs with electric cables and throwing them into the Kiri Dam with the knowledge that death would be the probable and not only the likely consequence of their act.
It further averred that ASP Usman, had in April, 2016 at Kiri dishonestly induced the parents and relatives of the deceased and put them in fear in his capacity as DPO and received the sum of N70,000 and N100,000 respectively.
The prosecution in the case number: HC/ADSY/48c/2021, arraigned the DPO alone and claimed that 6 other suspects were at large and called 3 relatives of the deceased who testified as witnesses.
Delivering judgement on Tuesday, Justice Hafsat, said " In the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses before me, I found that there abound such doubts of magnitude contemplated in the case above as seen by me, which are of material nature so as to vitiate the findings of this court on the guilt of the defendant".
She held that on seeming contradictions in the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses, it is true, indeed, that testimonies of witnesses can only be said to be contradictory when they give inconsistent accounts of the same event.
"That explains why the law takes the view that for contradictions in the testimonies of witnesses to vitiate a decision, they must be material and substantial.
" That is, such contradictions must be material to the extent that they cast serious doubts on the case presented as a whole by the party on whose behalf the witnesses testified, or as to the reality of such witnesses," she stated.
According to her, the court has found as not credible the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses in the case at hand, more so that many other potential witnesses are not called by the prosecution, though it is not a requirement of the law that all should be called.
She said that in his testimony, the IPO however recorded that there was no entery of the deceased persons names in the station diary, cell diary of Kiri police station, nor a trace of such entry anywhere indicating that the deceased were brought to the police station.
She stated that no of the vigilante men who allegedly said to have effected the arrest before handing the deceased persons to the defendant was called except the deceased family members who testified as witnesses.
"These pieces of lacuna has in the sense of law created and casted doubt in the mind of this court as to whether the defendant truly took custody of the deceased persons from the alleged vigilantes.
"In view of all the above, I hold therefore that the offence of culpable homicide punishable with death has not been proven against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt.
On the issue of conspiracy, she declared that the defendant cannot conspire with himself or by himself to commit a crime.
She said that though by the circumstantial evidence before the court, it can be inferred that the offence charged was jointly carried out by more than person, lamenting that it is unfortunate that the defendant was charged before the court alone and discharged and acquitted him accordingly.
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