Man to die by hanging for beheading seven-year-old boy

A Nasarawa State High Court 4, sitting in Lafia, has sentenced John Yakubu to death by hanging for beheading a seven-year-old boy, Samuel Danjuma, in 2012.
Justice James Abundaga, in his judgement on Wednesday, said the court found Yakubu guilty of culpable homicide punishable by death, based on his confessional statement.
Abundaga said the convict was arrested alongside with one Ishaya Daklung by operatives of the Department for State Services on July 22, 2012.
The judge said Yakubu was also found in possession of a fresh head of a boy, concealed in a polythene bag.
Abundaga held that Yakubu had in his confessional statement, lured the boy, his neighbour’s son, to a stream in Agwan Galadima in Nasarawa Local Government Area and drowned him before removing his head.
The judge said the death sentence was in line with Section 221 of the penal code.
Abundaga, however, sentenced the second accused, Daklung, to four years in prison with hard labour for being in possession of human head, saying that Daklung’s sentence was in line with Section 219 of the penal code.
Abundaga said the severed head of the victim had been deposited at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia morgue since the incidence.
Speaking to journalists after the judgment, the prosecution counsel, Mohammed Aboki, expressed happiness with the verdict, saying Justice had been served.
The counsel to the first accused, Emmanuel Kuza, was silent on whether or not he would appeal against the judgement, when asked.