A Plateau State High Court in Jos has sentenced a police officer, Ruya Auta, to death by hanging or by lethal injection for killing a student of the University of Jos (UNIJOS), Rinji Bala, on May 13, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sentence was delivered on December 8 by Hon. Justice David Mann, who found the officer guilty of violating Bala\u2019s fundamental right to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking after the ruling, counsel to Plateau State Government, Garba Pwul (SAN), said: \u201cIt has been five years of efforts and tenacity to bring justice to the deceased, the family, and even the government. Today, we have seen justice served.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pwul expressed hope that the ruling would serve as a deterrent to negligent security forces that misuse their rifles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cWe hope that this judgment will serve as a deterrent to trigger-happy and dangerously negligent uniformed men, and provide some measure of comfort to the deceased\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court had earlier awarded a substantial nine-figure sum in damages to Bala\u2019s family, declaring that his fundamental right to life had been violated by the actions of the security officer involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A friend of the deceased, who witnessed the killing, Emmanuel Gyang, said the ruling offered less of a sense of victory, but rather a reopening of old wounds, noting that since the day his friend was killed by the officer, he had felt terribly bad, and that the ruling had re-echoed the painful memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recall that Bala was shot dead by the trigger-happy police officer attached to the Special Task Force (STF) on peace-keeping in Plateau State on May 13, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Plateau State High Court in Jos has sentenced a police officer, Ruya Auta, to death by hanging or by lethal injection for killing a student of the University of Jos (UNIJOS), Rinji Bala, on May 13, 2020. The sentence was delivered on December 8 by Hon. Justice David Mann, who found the officer guilty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":88122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t