Army Officer Sentenced To 55 Years In Prison For Murder Of WHO Official
By Emmanuel Awosika
A Nigerian Army Lance Corporal, Babangida Ibrahim, has been handed a 55-year imprisonment after being found guilty of killing an official of the World Health Organization in Zamfara State.
Facing four charges of commiting civil offence, housebreaking, theft, and offence of theft, the Lance Corporal was brought before a Court Martial presided over by Major General PB Fekrogha.
The Court Martial had found him guilty of all charges laid against the Lance Corporal. In its judgment, the Court Martial gave Ibrahim forty years in prison for the first charge and five for the second charge. It also added five years for the third charge and another five for the fourth charge, bringing the total to 55 years.
According to the facts of the case, Army Lance Corporal Babangida Ibrahim had, on August 11, 2014, shot and murdered Mr Bello Aliyu Abdullahi, a WHO Staff, with AK-47 rifle.
Afterwards, Ibrahim had broken into Mr Aliyu’s house located at Gidan-Dari, Anka Local Government Area of Zamfara State. There, he had stolen a Gionee E3 phone and and a Nokia handset, both properties of Mr Aliyu.
The Lance Corporal had proceeded to steal the Honda Accord vehicle belonging to Mr Aliyu, which had a laptop PC and cash totaling 6,000 naira in it. He took the car to Kaduna where his family resides and had been using the vehicle as his personal car until his arrest by security agents.
While the Court Martial has sentenced Babangida Ibrahim, all is not done yet, as the Nigeria Army has to approve of the judgement and the prison sentence. However, it remains unlikely that Lance Corporal Babangida Ibrahim will be let off the hook, considering the enormity of his offence.
