The Supreme Court docket on Friday discharged and acquitted a Nigerian Military Sergeant, Akawu Bala from the demise sentence imposed on him by the Normal Court docket Martial of the Nigerian Military.
Whereas delivering judgment in an enchantment filed on the Supreme Court docket on March 16, 2017, by Bala, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju discharged him from the demise penalty.
Respite got here the way in which of the embattled military sergeant when the five-man panel of justices unanimously discharged him after spending 12 years in Kaduna Correctional Centre ready for ratification of the demise sentence handed on him.
The Apex Court docket rejected the arguments of the military’s lawyer and thereafter ordered the rapid launch of the convict from the correctional centre the place he had been on remand since 2012.
Ogunwumiju agreed with Reuben Atabo, counsel to Bala that the Court docket of Enchantment should have discharged the accused particular person having voided his trial and declared it a nullity.
She subsequently invoked part 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 and set the convict free including that the strange that means of part 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 is that the accused particular person can now not stand one other trial.
The Nigerian Military accused Bala of taking pictures one Isa Mohammed on December 9, 2012 when he was connected to the African Petroleum Station at Sabon Tasha, Kaduna with an AK47 gun.
The sufferer of the gunshot was stated to have died on December 10, 2012, at Saint Gerald’s Catholic Hospital in Kaduna.
Following his indictment, he was placed on trial on a homicide cost punishable beneath part 106 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 earlier than the Normal Court docket Martial on two depend.
He was discovered responsible of homicide and subsequently sentenced to demise by hanging.
Nonetheless, on Feb. 17, 2017, his enchantment towards the demise penalty was upheld by the Court docket of Enchantment, Kaduna division, on the bottom that the cost sheet upon which he was tried and convicted was not signed by a Normal Commanding Officer as required by regulation.
Justice Obietonbara Kalo who learn the Court docket of Enchantment’s lead judgment declared the method of the trial and conviction of the Sergeant as a nullity however nevertheless refused to discharge him from the nullified trial, prompting additional enchantment to the Supreme Court docket.
Bala’s lead Counsel, Atabo, had argued on behalf of the convict that having declared the trial of his shopper, a nullity, the Court docket of Enchantment should have made a consequential order to discharge the accused particular person from the flawed trial.
He drew the eye of the apex court docket to part 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 which prohibited the retrial of any army personnel after his trial has been voided and put aside.
The Nigerian Military by its lead counsel, Isaac Udoka vehemently objected to the arguments of the defence appellant and prayed that the apex court docket ought to order the retrial of the convict within the curiosity of justice.
Bala had in his defence claimed that he fired a shot at Isa Mohammed and one different particular person once they had been strolling in direction of him at the hours of darkness on the African Petroleum Station.
He equally claimed that his order for them to return was rebuffed prompting him to fireside at them earlier than they might seize him.
The convict claimed that he fired the gun on the two males as a result of it was through the peak of Boko Haram actions in Kaduna that they had been strolling in direction of him at the hours of darkness.
NAN