Saturday, December 6, 2025 - A High Court in Maiduguri has sentenced an eighteen-year-old herdsman, Adamu Mohammed, to death after finding him guilty of culpable homicide for killing nineteen-year-old Adamu Ali during a violent clash in Auno, Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State.
Justice Mohammed Maina ruled that prosecutors proved beyond
reasonable doubt that Mohammed struck Ali on the head with a cutlass during a
fight in the bush on January 19, 2025. Ali was later confirmed dead at the
State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.
Court documents show that Mohammed initially pleaded guilty,
but the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf because the charge
carries the death penalty. The prosecution presented two witnesses and
submitted exhibits including the defendant’s extra judicial statements and a
medical report. In both statements, Mohammed admitted he engaged the victim in
a cutlass fight.
The defence argued he acted in self defence, but the court
rejected the claim, pointing to inconsistencies in his account and noting there
was no evidence he was unable to retreat or avoid the fatal strike. Justice
Maina held that the force used was excessive and unjustified, and that
Mohammed’s actions satisfied the legal elements of culpable homicide punishable
with death under Section 191(a) of the Borno State Penal Code Law, 2023.
The judge then sentenced him to death by hanging.
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