A 34-year-old dismissed soldier, Sunday Umaru, has been sentenced to
death by hanging by a Plateau State High Court for hacking his
girlfriend, Charity Thomas, to death following his suspicion that she
was cheating on him.
At the sentencing which held yesterday January 23rd, the prosecutor,
Emmanuel Awe, told the court that Umaru, a married man, was a Private in
the Nigerian Army and was serving with the Special Task Force, Sector
7, Barkin Ladi, when he murdered Thomas in January 2016. According to
Awe, Charity who lived in Kaduna state, visited Umaru in Plateau state
and while she was there, Umaru searched her phone and found a text
message with a love intonation from a man. In anger, he stabbed Charity
with a knife in the stomach, slaughtered her body and then dumped it by
the roadside.
At his arraignment, Umaru faced a count of culpable homicide.
He was accused of killing his lover, Charity, who visited him from
Kaduna, by stabbing her with a knife in the stomach, slaughtering her
thereafter, and dumping the body by the roadside.
Soldiers in the barracks got wind of his evil act and arrested him.
In the course of the investigation, several gory pictures of the
deceased was found in Umaru’s phone. He was tried and later dismissed by
the Ar,my after he was found guilty.
Delivering judgement, Justice S. P. Gang stated that Umaru
“mercilessly took the life of Charity Thomas in cold blood” and had to
face the full weight of the law.
“This sentence is mandatory; the law states that any person convicted
of murder shall be punished with death by hanging. The sentence of this
court upon you is that you, Sunday Umaru, will be hanged by the neck
until you are dead. May God have mercy on your soul.” he said