Naija Gossips

The hope of a policeman, Usman Maigari, who strangled his 12-year-old wife, Sa'adatu Torankawa, to death for ritual purposes, to have an earlier judgement passed on him upturned has been dashed.

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the death sentence handed him by the Sokoto State High Court and the Court of Appeal, Sokoto as it ruled  that the killer-policeman,  Maigari,  is to die by hanging.

"To say the least, the appellant displayed a complete disregard for human life, with the archetypal characteristics of a beast dressed in police uniform with which he set about the abuse of that office and had thought he had enough expertise to cover up the dastardly acts with the impunity that went along with persons of such genre, best kept away from human society, especially as he held nothing sacred," Justice Mary Peter- Odili who delivered the court's judgment said as she described Maigari’s  actions as callous after considering the arguments of the appellant and the state. 

Justices Mahmud Mohammed, Muhammad Saifullah Muntaka-Coomassie, Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta and Olukayode Ariwoola, who also participated in the hearing of the appeal, agreed with the lead judgment given by Justice Peter-Odili.

Maigari, who  was arraigned before the Sokoto High Court on July 13, 2000, was  charged with culpable homicide punishable with death under Section 221(b) of the Penal Code.

He was accused of causing the death of his second wife, Sa'adatu Torankawa (whose age was put between 11 and 13 years) on January 11, 1999  by strangling her to death for ritual reasons, then conveyed her corpse and dumped it in a culvert near Janzomo village, along Kajiji-Shagari Road.

He had consistently pleaded not guilty to the charge during the trial.

In the course of the trial, he denied killing his wife, but said she died while he was conveying her to the hospital.

"I can remember that sometime in January 1999, my wife, Sa'adatu, fell sick one night. Then I conveyed her on my motorcycle from Yabo in order to take her to hospital in Sokoto.

"However, after we have passed Milgoma village, she died. When I noticed that she was dead, I put her body in a sack then, conveyed the corpse on my motorcycle and dumped it under a culvert along Shagari-Kajiji Road, near one village called Janzomo," he had said.

He also told the court that he hid the news about Sa'adatu's "ailment" and subsequent death from everyone, including his second wife, Hauwa'u, and his deceased wife's relatives.

Maigari  said he was scared that his in-laws could kill him.

 The trial judge, Justice Abbas Bello,  found him guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging.

Maigari later challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, Sokoto and lost. He thereafter headed for the Supreme Court, which also upheld the decisions of  the lower courts.

Wondering why the convict, a policeman, decided to keep his wife's ailment and subsequent death to himself if he had no ulterior motive, the Supreme Court   also queried his decision to dump his wife's body at the rear park of the hospital and later, under a culvert, where it was later discovered by passers-by rather than take her to the doctor for medical attention.

The court further wondered how Maigari, not being a medical doctor, concluded that his wife was dead;  and why he chose to dump her corpse under a culvert along the road to rot away, rather than inform her relatives for her to be properly buried.

The apex court therefore upheld the evidence in a medical report tendered by the prosecution to the effect that the deceased died from strangulation.

"What is sure is that there is enough circumstantial evidence, cogent, compelling, unequivocal and irresistible leading to the conclusion that the appellant and no other, caused the death of his wife, a young person of between 12-13 years by strangulating her to death and dumping her corpse in a culvert.

"It is also to be said that the proof put forward by the prosecution was beyond reasonable doubt in tragic circumstances most especially, in the present situation, where the perpetrator of this heinous, animalistic crime is an officer of the Nigerian Police Force, who donned the uniform of state, not with pride and dignity of a law enforcement personnel, but wore the uniform which he was unworthy to be seen in.

"The circumstances are such that I see no redeeming feature available to the appellant and therefore no basis to either fault  what the trial court and Court of Appeal did. 

“Rather, this court has no choice but to affirm the concurrent findings of the two courts below, which were supported by the evidence on record and nothing on which a deviation can be hung," Justice Peter-Odili said as she  dismissed Maigari’s appeal for lacking in merit.