A Plateau High Court sitting in Jos on Monday sentenced 24-year-old Godwin Banchir to death by hanging for beating his 65-year-old mother to death for not responding to his greetings.
Justice Daniel Longji handed down the sentence as he found Banchir guilty of killing his biological mother.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Longji said: “Going by the findings of this court, you Godwin Banchir, mercilessly took the life of your mother, Mrs Saratu Banchir, in cold blood.
“This sentence is mandatory, as 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, Godwin Banchir, will be hanged until you are dead, may God have mercy on your soul,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convict was first arraigned on June 6, 2016, charged with culpable homicide, contrary to Section 221 of the Penal Code punishable with death upon conviction.
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The convict was said to have committed the crime on Jan. 21, 2016, when he used a stick to beat his mother to death.
Banchir in his confessional statement said that he returned from the farm on the said date and found his mother sitting in the compound and when he greeted her, she ignored him.
He said that that infuriated him and he picked a stick and hit her.
In his words: “I got angry when she did not respond to my greetings, so I picked the stick of an axe and hit her around her ribs.
“She fell down and started shouting, which attracted our neighbours who came to beat me up and later took me to the police station.
“I have been having misunderstandings with my mother each time I return from the farm. She doesn’t cook for me on time, and she always quarrel with me whenever I want to bath with the water she fetched from the stream.
“Her actions always annoy me. I did not know that she was going to die from the beating she received from me,” he said.