Man to die by hanging for beating mother to death

A Plateau High Court, sitting in Jos, yesterday sentenced 24-year-old Godwin Banchir, to death by hanging for beating his 65-year-old mother to death for not responding to his greeting. Delivering the judgment, Justice Daniel Longji said: “Going by the findings of this court, you Godwin Banchir, mercilessly took the life of your mother, Mrs Saratu […]

A Plateau High Court, sitting in Jos, yesterday sentenced 24-year-old Godwin Banchir, to death by hanging for beating his 65-year-old mother to death for not responding to his greeting.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Daniel 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.

“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.

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 he returned from the farm on the said date and found his mother sitting in the compound and that when he greeted her, she ignored him.

He said that infuriated him and he picked a stick and hit her with it.

In his words: “I got angry when she did not respond to my greeting, 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.