Sokoto Court Sentences Three CJTF Members To Death For Murder

A Sokoto State High Court has sentenced three members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) to death by hanging after convicting them of criminal conspiracy, armed robbery and culpable homicide.

The convicts, identified as Gaji Hassan, Abdullahi Goni Gudusu and Modu Bukar, were found guilty of killing a man, Babangida Nasiru, after allegedly robbing him of 260,000 naira in Kagara village of Goronyo Local Government Area.

The presiding judge, Justice Kabiru Muhammad, delivered the judgment on Thursday in suit number SS/78C/2026, titled The State vs Gaji Hassan and Two Others.

According to the court, the incident occurred on September 19, 2024, at about 4:30 p.m., when the three convicts, armed with rifles, stopped Nasiru and a female companion and took them into the bush.

The court heard that the defendants collected N260,000 from Nasiru and kept him in their custody. He was later found dead with gunshot wounds to his chest and neck.

During the trial, the prosecution called two witnesses, while the court found the evidence of the surviving eyewitness credible and unshaken.

The judge rejected the defendants’ claim that they had released the deceased, holding that they failed to explain the circumstances surrounding his death.

The court also relied on the doctrine of last seen, which places the burden of explaining a person’s death on those last seen with the deceased under circumstances that call for an explanation.

Justice Muhammad further held that the defendants’ confessional statements were voluntary and admissible in evidence, noting that their allegations of torture were not corroborated.

The judge ruled that the testimony of the surviving eyewitness was sufficient to establish the prosecution’s case against the defendants.

In sentencing the trio, the court cited the mandatory death penalty prescribed under the Sokoto State Penal Code Law, 2019, for the offences established against them.

Justice Muhammad subsequently sentenced each of the convicts to death by hanging, ordering that they be hanged by the neck until they are dead.

The court, however, informed the convicts of their right to appeal the judgment at the Court of Appeal within 90 days.