A Kano State High Court, on Wednesday, sentenced a 27-year-old driver, Kassim Hussain, to 15 years imprisonment and fined N500,000 for knocking down and killing a Kano Road Traffic Agency officer while attempting to remove his number plate.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Maryam Sabo, ordered Hussain to serve an additional five-year jail term if he fails to pay the N500,000 fine.
The court also ruled that the jail term would run concurrently and commence from the date of Hussain’s arrest.
A charge sheet by the prosecution counsel from the Kano State Ministry for Justice, Mahdi Aliyu Abdulrahman, states: “That you, Kassim Hussain, 27, on or about October 29, 2021, at about 10:00hrs at Airport Road opposite Eldorado Cinema in Nassarawa Local Government Area, within the Judicial Division of this Honourable Court, committed culpable homicide with death, in that you caused the death of one Tijjani Adamu Gambo, a Kano Road Traffic Agency, personnel who was on duty, by doing an act to wit you knocked down and ran over him with your car in order to prevent him from removing your plate number or taking you to their office. And thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 221 of the penal code (CAP 105) Laws of Kano State 1991.”
To prove his case, the prosecution counsel called five witnesses and tendered a medical certificate, the deceased’s photograph, and statements as exhibits.
Among the Prosecution Witnesses presented include Adamu Gambo Unguwa Uku, the father of the deceased, Suleiman Shehu Ismail, KAROTA officer at the Eldorado Cinema, Dr. Ibrahim, who examined the deceased and confirmed his death, and the Investigative Police Officer who recorded the statement of the defendant.
The summary of the evidence by the prosecution counsel informed the court that on October 29, 2019, the convict in his attempt to escape from arrest by KAROTA personnel, hit the deceased with his car, an action that led to his death.
On his side, the defence counsel, Felix Jones Osimerha, presented Kassim Hussain who defended himself as a sole defence witness.
The defendant was charged under Section 221 of the Penal Code, punishable with a death sentence.
Consequently, however, after hearing and considering the witnesses and exhibits adduced in the cause of the trial, the Presiding Judge, Justice Maryam Sabo, found the defendant guilty under Section 222 of the Penal Code, Culpable Homicide not punishable with death.
The court furthermore convicted and accordingly sentenced Kassim Hussain under Section 224 of the Penal Code not punishable with death.
Section 224 reads, “Whoever commits culpable homicide not punishable with death shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or any lesser term with fine or both.”
