Revealed: Father of Five to Die For Killing Fulani Herdsman

James afolabi,has been sentenced to death for shooting a Fulani Herdsman who destroyed his crops on the farmland.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the death
sentence handed out to a farmer and father of
five, James Afolabi, by the Kogi State High Court
and the Court of Appeal.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, a
five-man panel of the apex court held that there
was no basis to disturb the concurrent finding of
the trial and lower courts in their previous
judgments.
Afolabi, from
Kogi State, was convicted and
sentenced to death by the Kogi State High Court,
Lokoja in 2012 having been found guilty for the
murder of a Fulani man, Abubakar Mohammed.
The court relied on Afolabi’s confessional
statement to the police, where he claimed to
have shot Mohammed on the chest for straying
into his (Afolabi’s) yam and cassava farm on
February 27, 2009.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja on March 22, 2012
dismissed his appeal and upheld the decision of
the trial court, a decision he appealed to the
Supreme Court.
On Friday, Justice John Inyang Okoro, in the lead
judgment in the appeal marked: SC/181/2012,
held that although the prosecution could not
produce an eye witness at trial, it provided
sufficient evidence, through its witnesses, “which
gave vent to the confession of the appellant.
“And in any case, this court held in Mohammed v
State (2007) 11 NWLR (pt 1045) 303 at 230
paragraph F that where an accused person
confesses to a crime, in the absence of an eye
witness of the killing, he can be convicted on his
confession alone.
“For all I have said, I hold a strong view that the
court below was on a strong wicket when it
upheld the conviction and sentencing of the
appellant upon reliance on his confessional
statements,” he said.
Justice Okoro also sided with the lower court in
concluding that the intention of the appellant
was to kill the victim.
“In the instant case, the appellant states
emphatically, in Exhibit D (confessional
statement), adjudged to have been freely and
voluntarily made, that he aimed his gun at the
chest of the deceased at close range and shot
him.
“It was his further evidence that the deceased
fell down and could not move again. At that
point, he ran to the village head and reported
that he had killed a man.
“In the circumstance, did he intend to kill the
man? I had earlier stated in this judgment that a
person is taken to intend that natural and
probable consequences of his act.
“So, when the appellant aimed his gun at the
chest of the deceased and shot it, did he intend
to keep him alive? I do not think so. At least he
intended to cause him grievous bodily harm.
“And, in view of the force of a gunshot aimed at
the heart, the engine room of a man’s life, it can
safely be concluded that the appellant intends to
kill the deceased on his action, the report he
made to the village head notwithstanding.