30-year-old Nigerian soldier sentenced to death by hanging for raping a married woman

30-year-old Nigerian soldier, Lance Corporal Oge Etudo, has been found guilty of rape and culpable homicide and has been sentenced to death by hanging by an Abuja Court.

The Soldier who was formerly attached to a battalion of the Nigerian Army at Lungi Barracks in Abuja, was found guilty of abducting a lady, whose name was given as Binta Usman Kadede, on March 27, 2014, at Dei-Dei suburb of the FCT.

Justice A.S. Adepoju who ruled on the case, stressed that the soldier gruesomely murdered his victim after raping her, and so will not show mercy to him.

The soldier who maintained he was innocent of the charges, had this to say;

“I was a guard commander in my Commander Tango’s house. I took a break by 10 am after submitting my arms and ammunition to my junior, I left to Dei-Dei to see my friend called Igwe at Dei-Dei to discuss about my planned white weeding.

“I stopped at Dei-Dei to urinate, in the process I was attacked by some hoodlums who inflicted injuries in me. I ran to the Conoil filling station”, he added.

He told the court that at the time he was attacked, he was in his military uniform and was carrying a cash of N55, 000 on him.

“On reaching the Conoil, I shouted thief! thief! and fainted due to loss of blood.

“I did not know what happened after regaining consciousness, I found myself in the hospital Unclad.”

Nevertheless, one of the prosecution witnesses, Usman Ishaq, a security guard at a block industry in Dei- Dei, told the court that he saw the defendant force the deceased into the bush.

“He was a passenger on a motorbike,(okada) when he came towards the deceased side, he told the Okada rider to stop. He dropped from the motorcycle and asked him to go. And he forced the deceased – a milk seller, into the bush.

“When I got to the point where they entered the bush, I met the accused person on top of the deceased with knife. He was stabbing her on the neck and on the abdomen”.

The witness went on to tell the court, how he mobilized people who got the soldier arrested after he tried to escape.

The husband of the deceased, Usman Adamu, also testified as prosecution witness 2.

A medical report signed by a Chief Consultant Pathologist, Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital, Abuja, Dr. A.U. Mukthar, confirmed that the deceased had injuries around the vulva area with cervical fractures and corroborated the uncontradicted evidence of the eye-witness who saw the accused person on top of the deceased with a knife.