NAN-H-27
Stabbing
By Martha Nuhu
Jos, July 18, 2017 (NAN) A 23-year-old man, Abubakar Khalid, on Tuesday reappeared before a Jos High Court in Plateau for allegedly stabbing a man to death at a Jos night club.
Khalid, residing in Konan Shagari in Jos North, is standing trial on charges bordering on criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide.
The offences are punishable with death upon conviction.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the accused was first arraigned on Feb. 28.
The Police Prosecutor, Sgt. Yongu Terngu, had told court that the accused committed the crime on Dec. 25, 2016 at De-Groove Night Club on Rukuba Road in Jos.
Terngu said that Khalid and another man, identified simply as Auwal, armed themselves with knives and killed one Aminu Bello, who was at the club.
He said that the accused told police in a confessional statement that he used a knife he found at the club to stab the deceased in the neck and shoulder when a fight broke out.
The prosecutor said that the accused in the statement confessed that a few minutes after arriving at the club with his friend, a group of boys started to fight which made him to go to the VIP section to avoid being hit.
Terngu said the accused saw an injured man walk out of the club to later return with a group of boys armed with bottles and knives.
He said that the accused narrated that another fight started and when he saw a blood-stained knife on the floor, he quickly picked it and stabbed the deceased, who was standing in a corner.
The prosecutor said that the accused quickly ran out of the club and dropped the knife in a drum filled with water and was ready to flee when some military men rounded them up.
The accused, in the statement, said the military officers made him remove the knife he threw in the drum, after which they tied everyone up and handed them to the police.
Terngu said the offences contravened Sections 97 and 221 of the Penal Code, offences punishable with death upon conviction.
The Presiding Judge, Justice I.A. Ashom, ordered that the accused should be remanded in prison custody till Oct. 4 when his plea would be taken. (NAN)
ADY/MNA/SN
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Edited by Maureen Atuonwu/Silas Nwoha