A General Court Martial presided over by Maj. Gen. P. Fekrogha on Wednesday sentenced Army Lance Corporal Babangida Ibrahim to 55 years imprisonment for killing a World Health Organisation worker, Bello Abdullahi, in Zamfara State and stealing his property.
The court martial, which sat at the Command Officers Mess 1, Asokoro, Abuja, found Ibrahim guilty on all four counts.
The convict was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment on count one and was given an additional five years on count two, three, and four. The terms are to run concurrently.
The court heard that Ibrahim, while on deployment on Operation Mesa to fight banditry in Zamfara State, at about 10 pm on August 11, 2014, without justification, shot and killed Abdullahi with his AK47 rifle.
He also broke into Abdullahi’s apartment located at Gidan-Dari, Anka LGA, Zamfara State, and stole his Gionee E3 phone and a Nokia handset.
The soldier equally took away a Honda Accord car belonging to the deceased containing one laptop computer and N6,000, which he drove to Kaduna where his family resides and was using it before investigators arrested him.
The President of the GCM disclosed that the sentence was subject to confirmation by the Nigerian Army.
Members of the GCM include Brigs. Gen. J. Ochai, P. Pearse, E. Ikomi, A. Okpodu, S. Makulo; Cols. M. Ibrahim, L. Abubakar, M. Yusuf and the Judge Advocate, Capt. K. Ogili.
The Prosecution Council for the Nigerian Army was led by Maj. Dipreye Biambo while the Defence Counsel for the accused soldier was led by Felix Jimba.
(PUNCH)
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