Judgment
BOLOUKUROMO MOSES UGO, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment) : Appellant and two other persons – Jamilu Mohammad and Basiru Musa – were charged before the High Court of Kano State with the offences of conspiracy, kidnapping and culpable homicide punishable with death contrary to Sections 97(1), 273 and 221 of the Penal Code Law of Kano State. Appellant was the second accused person in that charge while Jamilu Mohammad and Basiru Musa were 1st and 3rd accused persons respectively in all three counts of the charge.
The subject of their said crimes is a little kid called Aliyu Aminu Ahmed (alias Hadan or Haidar). He was just about five to six years old at the time of his kidnapping and eventual killing by appellant and his cohorts, which was said to have taken place on 4/03/2014. Among six witnesses called by the prosecution to prove its charges was the deceased’s father, Alhaji Aminu Mohammad, a business man. He testified as the prosecution’s third witness (P.W.3).
Appellant’s own elder brother, Umar Mohammad, testified as P.W.1, while one Yusuf Lawan, a 21-year-old electric generator repairer, testified as (P.W.2). Mr.
Lawan, P.W.2 swore in his testimony that at about 4pm on the fateful 04/03/2014 day of the kidnapping of the deceased, he was returning a customer’s power generator to him when he saw appellant holding a small boy of about six years old, who he, P.W2, said he did not know. Umar Mohammad (P.W.3), the businessman father of the deceased, commenced his testimony by saying that he knew all three accused persons; that he had in fact previously seen 1st accused person Jamilu on three occasions in front of his house and when asked what he was doing there, 1st accused replied that he was a scrap collector.
He said he there and then warned 1st accused not to come near his house again and even instructed his guardsmen not to allow him in front of his house. The next time he saw 1st accused and his co-accused persons including appellant, he said, was at the State Security Department Office following his arrest with appellant for the kidnapping and killing of his now deceased son, Haidar.
He had this to say on the utterances and conduct of appellant and his co-accused persons at the State Security Department Office when he met them there: ‘It was there I got to hear their argument accusing each other.
