A High Court in Minna, Niger State has sentenced two siblings to death by hanging for killing a married woman, while the third sibling got life imprisonment due to her age when they committed the crime.
The siblings, Amina Aliyu and Aishat Mohammed Aliyu and Zainab (the youngest then), residents of the Barkin Saleh, Minna, were convicted of killing Hafsat Aliyu, the wife of Alhaji Muhammad Sani and co-wife of Aishat, in March 2021.
According to the prosecution, Aisha struck Hafsat Aliyu with a pestle before setting her body on fire in the kitchen of their residence.
The case was initially tried at Minna Chief Magistrate Court Number One before being transferred to the High Court.
During the proceedings, which lasted for three years, four witnesses, including the victim’s husband, testified. The husband, Sani, detailed how his wife was killed by her co-wife, Amina Aliyu.
In her judgment, Justice Balkisu Gambo Yusuf of the Minna High Court 7, declared that the prosecution had proven the charges beyond doubt. “The punishment for culpable homicide under Section 221 of the Penal Code is death,” she stated.
The defence counsel, Peter Omale, pleaded for leniency for Zainab, a minor at the time of the crime, citing the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), which exempts minors from capital punishment.
Justice Yusuf, who agreed with the defence argument, ruled: “As of 2021, when the offence was committed, the ACJA excluded anyone below 18 from facing the death penalty.
