A man, Usman Shehu Bashir, has been sentenced to death in Zaria, Northwest Nigeria for raping to death a two-year-old girl.
The accused was a neighbor of Fatima’s parents at Sabongari area of the town, and had lured the girl into his room where he raped her to death.
When her parents noticed that she was missing, they started to search for her whereabouts which led them to his room. The girl’s body was found hidden under a pile of clothes.
According to Justice Kabir Dabo, the Kaduna High Court Judge who ruled on the case, “the convict has confessionally confirmed the occurrence of the offense, as well, his written statements also confirmed. By these two confessional statements, the court passed the judgment. On that fateful day, the convict took Fatima to his room for about 40 minutes; he raped her which led to her death, after the establishment of all the evidence of committing the crime.”
The case, which started in March 2015, lasted for five years. The convict was denied bail after he was charged with culpable homicide and rape.
The death by hanging sentence was in accordance with section 221 of the penal code, Kaduna State law 1999 (as amended).
Usman Shehu Bashir had previously appealed the ruling in 2020 but this has now been dismissed and the judgment of the lower court affirmed, as tweeted by the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice on July 3rd.
The father of the deceased, Malam Zakarriyah Dahiru believed that this punishment justified what was done to his daughter.
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