Plateau: Court sentences two men to death by hanging for murder

A Plateau State High Court has sentenced two persons – Thomas Danboyi and Pam Lang – to death by hanging for their roles in the killing of one Chung Bot.

Plateau State Chief Judge, Justice David Gwong Mann, delivered the verdict at the High Court in Jos on Wednesday.

The court found the defendants guilty of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide in the case – State vs. Thomas Danboyi & Pam Lang (Charge No. PLD/J112C/2010).

Mann explained that the offence were punishable under the Penal Code Law of Northern Nigeria, 1963 (then applicable to Plateau State).

Led by the Plateau State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, P.A. Daffi and a team of lawyers, the prosecution team said the crime occurred on April 26, 2010, at Tahai Gyel Bukuru in Jos South Local Government Area.

According to the prosecution, the victim, Chung Bot, and his family had gone to their farmland in Ta Hei, Gyel, to cultivate when they were attacked by the accused persons with others now at large.

Evidence presented before the court revealed that the first accused, Thomas Danboyi, restrained the victim by holding his hands behind his back while the second accused, Pam Lang, repeatedly struck Bot on the head with a stick.

The victim was later rushed to the Plateau Hospital, Jos, and died while receiving treatment following the injuries he sustained.

The court found both defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, leading to their conviction.

Justice Mann explained that the evidence before the court was “overwhelming” and that the prosecution through its witnesses and exhibits tendered, “established, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the defendants conspired to commit this crime and intentionally caused the death of the victim”.

Their counsel, following the conviction, pleaded that the court temper justice with mercy, noting that the convicts are responsible family men and had been of good conduct in the course of their trial.

Justice Mann exercised his discretion only in respect of the criminal conspiracy by handing out the sentence of three years imprisonment but on the offence of culpable homicide, the judge hand down the mandatory sentence, which is the death penalty.