Abdulsalam Ibrahim V. The State (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

UWANI MUSA ABBA AJI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of the High Court of Justice, Kaduna State, holden at Kaduna in Charge No. KDH/KAD/17C/2000, delivered by Justice M.T.M. Aliyu on 27/9/2010, wherein the Appellant was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging under Section 221 of the Penal Code.

The charge against the Appellant pursuant to Sections 97(i), 274 and 221 of the Penal Code contained at page 2 of the records in the Charge Sheet dated 3/3/2000 and filed on 1/3/2007 reads as follows:

COUNT ONE

That you ABDULSALAM IBRAHIM, SUNDAY IKE AND JA’AFARU ISIYAKU on or about the 10th day of October, 1999 at about 1100 hours in Madobi village via Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State agreed to be done and indeed caused to be done an illegal act, to wit, behead and or cut off the head of one HADIZA IBAHIM “F’ with the aid of a very sharp object, and that you thereby committed an offence punishable pursuant to Section 97(i) of the Penal Code and triable by the High Court.

COUNT TWO

That you ABDULSALAM IBRAHIM on or about the 12th day of Oct. 1999 at about 100

1

hours in Madobi village via Giwa, Giwa Local Govt. of Kaduna State, kidnapped or abducted one HADIZA IBRAHIM “F? in order that she might be killed for ritual purposes and thereby committed an offence punishable pursuant to Section 274 of the Penal Code and triable by the High Court.

COUNT THREE

That you ABDUSALAM IBRAHIM on or about the 12th day of Oct. 1999 at about 100 hours in Madobi village via Giwa, Giwa Local Govt. of Kaduna State, did commit culpable homicide punishable with death for having voluntarily caused the death of one HADIZA IBRAHIM “F? by doing an act to wit, cut off her head with the aid of a particularly sharp object with the intention of causing her death and thereby committed an offence punishable pursuant to Section 221 of the Penal Code and triable by the High Court.

The facts according to the evidence of PW2, Izzatu Ibrahim, the mother of the deceased and step mother of the Appellant are that the Appellant sent for the deceased through one Hamisu, that she should accompany him to cut out grass in the farm of the Appellant’s father and that she saw them both in the farm that fateful morning but when she returned

2

home in the afternoon, she did not see the deceased and the