Tears as High Court Sentences Two Siblings to Death in Niger

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Tears flowed freely from the parents of three siblings yesterday when a Minna High Court in Niger State sentenced two of the teenagers to death, and the third to life imprisonment.

Sympathisers also joined the parents in sobbing as Justice Bilkisu Gambo Yussuf handed down the sentences to Amina Aliyu, Aishat Mohammed and  Zainab Aliyu, all of the same parents and resided at Barkin Saleh area of Minna, the Niger State capital.

For three years, the siblings had faced a two-count charge of joint act and culpable homicide punishable with death, contrary to Sections 97 and 221 of the penal code brought against them by the state  Attorney-General.

Aishat Aliyu was said to have on March 23, 2021,  killed her rival, late Hafsat Aliyu, after hitting her with a pestle and setting her corpse on fire in the kitchen.

Four witnesses, including the husband of the deceased, Alhaji Mohammed Sani, testified for the prosecution.

The defence counsel pleaded for leniency on behalf of one of the accused persons  Zainab Aliyu,  who was a teenager at the time the offence was committed and going by the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ACJA, which the state had domesticated, she could not be sentenced to death (being under age when the offence was committed).

Justice Bilkisu in her judgement agreed with the defence counsel that “as at 2021, when the offence was committed, the administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) was already domesticated which really excluded some body below the age of eighteen to be convicted for capital related offence, therefore the third convict, Zainab Aliyu, is hereby convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Justice Yussuf sentenced Amina Aliyu and Aishat Aliyu to death by electrocution.

 “May the Lord have mercy on their souls,” she prayed.

At this stage, the parents burst into tears, joined by sympathisers