A federal high court sitting in Yola, Adamawa State has reportedly sentenced a farmer to death for defending himself against a herdsman.
Kabiru Zelani, a rice farmer who has been standing trial since 2015 for stabbing Ardo Ali, a herder to death was sentenced on Tuesday, reports Sahara Reporters.
The 22-year-old defendant who was said to have committed the crime on October 18, 2015 at his farmland located at Leme village in the Gombi local government area was convicted by Justice Fatimah Ahmed Tafida of the High Court IV.
“The court hereby sentences you, Kabiru Zelani, to death by hanging until certified dead by a medical doctor,” the judge ruled after declaring that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubts that Zalani was found guilty of culpable homicide punishable by death contrary to section 221(b) of the state penal code law.
The defendant had claimed that “while working on my rice farm on 18th October, 2015, the deceased came and put his animals on my rice farm. When I saw that the animals were destroying the crops, I confronted the herder; so he became provoked.
“The herder used his cutlass and struck me on my right hand, the evidence of which could be seen here, a scar, showing serious injury, and that he also pulled out his knife and tried to stab me, but I (Zelani) fell the herder on the ground.”
