A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to death by hanging for killing his father, mother and three siblings in Kano nearly two years ago.
Bello Garuba was found guilty by the Kano State High Court yesterday for stabbing to death his ill father Garba, then an assistant director of the State Security Service, as well as his mother Habiba and siblings Hafsat, Khalifa and Murjanatu.
The convict, also known as Baba, was charged in November 2010 with five counts of culpable homicide at the family home along Zoo Road in Kano.Delivering the judgement, Justice Halliru Abdullahi yesterday said he found Baba guilty based on the "uncontroverted" testimonies of seven prosecution witnesses.
He said the evidence given by the convict's brother, Faruk, convinced the court that he committed the murders, and rejected argument by the defence counsel that some of the testimonies were contradictory.
Faruk, who was 10 years old at the time of the incident, told the court at the commencement of trial last year, that Baba used a knife to stab the five to death. He said he escaped the attack after taking refuge in a toilet.
Baba, who was a student of the Kano State University of Technology at the time, made a confessional statement to the police admitting the murders but later denied it, saying he made the statement following a death threat by the SSS.
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