After 18 months in detention, a Chinese national, Frank Geng-Quangrong, was, yesterday, sentenced to death by hanging for stabbing her girlfriend, Ummukulsum Buhari, to death in Kano State.
The Chinese was convicted after being found guilty of culpable homicide, an offence contrary to Section 221 (b) of Kano State Penal Code. Delivering judgment on the murder case, Justice Sanusi Ma’aji, declared that the confessional and written statements of the defendant were inconsistently riddled.
Ma’aji dismissed the evidence and testimony of the defence counsel, who arrogated a claim of self-defence as the reason his client committed the act. He, however, held that the court did not find any merit in the claim of the defence counsel to prove his client’s self-defence claim.
While ordering that the convict should be hanged until he (convict) breathes his last, the judge granted the prayer of the defence counsel, Mohammed Dan’Azumi, on the prerogative of mercy.
Reacting to the judgment, Kano Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Haruna Dederi, who led the prosecution, expressed satisfaction on the judgment of the court. He said the decision of the court served the maximum justice to the family of the victim.
On his part, Dan’Azumi insisted the decision of the judge was not in conformity with the confessional statement of his client. He had appealed to the court to recommend the Chinese national for the prerogative of mercy, as allowed under Section 313 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA). He further averred that the convict was a first-time offender.
Geng-Quangrong was arrested in September 2022 for stabbing Buhari to death during an encounter at the lady’s home in Kaluga Quarters, Kano. Although, during a series of testimonies at the court, he had confessed to have stabbed the lady in self-defence, he submitted that he would not have deliberately killed a lady he wanted to marry.
