By Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu
The Jigawa State High Court has sentenced four family members to death by hanging for killing a neighbour they accused of witchcraft.
The judge, Ado Yusuf, found 55-year-old Hassan Isah, his wife, brother and sister-in-law guilty of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide.
The family members had told police investigators that Salamatu Musa, their 30-year-old neighbour, used witchcraft to kill their son.
In a statement on Wednesday Abbas Wangara, the Director of Protocol and Publicity of the Jigawa State Judiciary, said the convicts committed the offence in 2019 in Mallammadori Local Government Area.
They were convicted of beating Musa with a stick, resulting in her death.
The convicts—Hassan Isah, 55, Adama Yahaya, 42, Abdullahi Yahaya, 35, and Maryam Daso Yahaya, 28 —lived with the deceased at the same address in Kwan-Dole, a village in Mallam-Madori Local Government Area of Jigawa State.
“Upon prosecution, the court heard five witnesses and a medical report, apart from a confessional statement, thereby the court found them guilty for the offence of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide punishable under Section 97 and Section 221(b) of the Penal Code Laws”, the official statement said.
The court sentenced the convicts to “six years imprisonment each for the offence of criminal conspiracy, and death by hanging for the offence of culpable homicide.
“They have 90 days right of appeal,” the statement added.
Although there have been death sentences recorded lately, Nigeria has not carried out any death penalty in over two decades.
