NIGERIA: SOLDIER TO HANG FOR MURDER, ANOTHER JAILED FOR LIFE

October 9, 2012: In Nigeria, the Owerri High Court sentenced a soldier, Bassey Asinya, to death while Augustine Nwolisa, also a soldier, bagged life imprisonment for the murder of an American based businessman, Sylvester Nnameka Obiekea. 
Justice Ngozi Ukoha, in her judgment said the two soldiers, who are attached to the 34 Artillery Brigade, Obinze in Imo State, were found guilty of charges brought against them.
The judge said while the first accused, Bassey Asinya, was found guilty of murder, the second accused, Augustine Nwolisa, was guilty of manslaughter.
Ukoha said negligence and wickedness facilitated the death of the deceased.
She said the court found out that the first accused shot the deceased three times, and that the fact that the two soldiers left their duty post shows that they had a common mission.
The judge said there was no evidence that the second accused person, Augustine, got into the vehicle of the deceased, and that the two accused affirmed that Obiekea was still alive when the vehicle was searched. She described as wickedness the act of taking Obiekea to the barracks where there is no life saving equipment, saying he should have been taken to the hospital.
She said based on the evidence, Obiekea died in the early hours of December 25, 2006, from the shot he received from the first accused person.
The judge recalled that the defence witness, Sergeant Tijani Baba, affirmed that the two accused persons left their duty posts without approval of their superior and that they acted on their own.
Earlier, Bassey denied shooting the deceased three times, but accepted that the deceased died at the army barracks. (Sources: dailytrust.com.ng, 10/10/2012)