A General Court Martial, on Wednesday, jailed Army Lance Corporal Babangida Ibrahim 55 years for killing a World Health Organisation worker, Bello Abdullahi, in Zamfara State and stealing his property.
The court martial, which sat at the Command Officers Mess 1, Asokoro, Abuja, found Ibrahim guilty on all four counts.
President of the Court Martial, Maj. Gen. P. Fekrogha, sentenced the convict to 40 years imprisonment on count one and also gave him additional five years on count two, three, and four. The jail terms are to run concurrently.
The court heard that Ibrahim, while on deployment on Operation Mesa to fight banditry in Zamfara State, at about 10 pm on August 11, 2014, without justification, shot and killed Abdullahi with his AK47 rifle.
He also broke into Abdullahi’s apartment located at Gidan-Dari, Anka LGA, Zamfara State, and stole his Gionee E3 phone and a Nokia handset.
The soldier also stole a Honda Accord car belonging to the deceased, containing one laptop computer and N6,000, and drove it to Kaduna, where he began to use the car before investigators arrested him.
President of the GCM disclosed that the sentence was subject to confirmation by the Nigerian Army.
Other members of the GCM include Brigs. Gen. J. Ochai, P. Pearse, E. Ikomi, A. Okpodu, S. Makulo; Cols. M. Ibrahim, L. Abubakar, M. Yusuf and the Judge Advocate, Capt. K. Ogili.
Prosecution counsel for the Nigerian Army was led by Maj. Dipreye Biambo, while the Defence counsel for the accused soldier was led by Felix Jimba.