Policeman gets death sentence for killing his 12-year-old wife for rituals

The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence passed on a policeman who choked his 12-year-old wife to death for rituals.
Yesterday, Usman Maigari’s case transferred from the Sokoto State High Court was analysed by the apex court concluding that the accused acted callously.
“To say the least, the appellant displayed a complete disregard for human life, with the archetypal characteristics of a beast dressed in police uniform with which he set about the abuse of that office and had thought he had enough expertise to cover up the dastardly acts with the impunity that went along with persons of such genre, best kept away from human society, especially as he held nothing sacred.”
On upholding the verdict, Supreme court Justice Mary Peter-Odili said:
“What is sure is that there is enough circumstantial evidence, cogent, compelling, unequivocal and irresistible, leading to the conclusion that the appellant and no other, caused the death of his wife, a young person of between 12-13 years, by strangulating her to death and dumping her corpse in a culvert.
“It is also to be said that the proof put forward by the prosecution was beyond reasonable doubt in tragic circumstances, most especially, in the present situation, where the perpetrator of this heinous, animalistic crime is an officer of the Nigerian Police Force, who donned the uniform of state, not with pride and dignity of a law enforcement personnel, but wore the uniform which he was unworthy to be seen in.
“The circumstances are such that I see no redeeming feature available to the appellant and therefore no basis to either fault what the trial court and Court of Appeal did. Rather, this court has no choice but to affirm the concurrent findings of the two courts below, which were supported by the evidence on record and nothing on which a deviation can be hung,” Justice Peter-Odili held.