YOLA HIGH COURT COURT SENTENCES ADAMAWA BUTCHER TO DEATH BY HANGING
By Fidelis Jockthan
The Yola High Court has delivered a death sentence on Yunusa Umaru, a local butcher, for the crime of culpable homicide.
Presiding Judge, Justice Ishaku Yakubu Haliru, found Umaru guilty of stabbing one Rabiu to death during a fight and ordered that he be “hanged by the neck until dead.”
The sentence was passed on Friday, August 8, 2025.
The tragic incident, which led to the charge filed by the Directorate of Public Prosecution on September 23, 2021, originated from a violent altercation between the convict, Yunusa Umaru, a resident of No. 46 Tafida Street in Jimeta, and the deceased.
The prosecution, led by a Senior State Counsel, Barrister I.S. Barde, successfully argued that during the fight, Umaru fatally stabbed Rabiu in the neck with a knife.
The case was transferred and first mentioned in court on July 18, 2022, with the full trial commencing on February 16, 2023.
In a final plea for leniency, the defense counsel, Barrister F.A. Ogbe of the Legal Aid Council, urged the court to temper justice with mercy, highlighting that the convict is a married man with family responsibilities.
However, in his judgment, Justice Haliru stated that the provisions of the law under which Umaru was charged left no room for discretion.
“The law under which the defendant is charged did not give the court any room to do anything outside its provisions. Accordingly, the hands of the court are tied. The court can only pass the maximum sentence in accordance with the law,” the Judge declared.
“The sentence of the court upon you, Yunusa Umaru, is that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”
