Nigerian Court Sentences Chinese National To Death For Killing Girlfriend

A Chinese national was sentenced to death on Tuesday by a Nigerian Court which found him guilty of killing his girlfriend.

Geng-Quangrong, 47, was accused of stabbing his girlfriend, 22-year-old Ummukulsum Sani, in September 2022 at a Kano residence. Local media quoted him as saying he stabbed her in self-defense.

“The defendant’s testimony is inconsistent I hereby find him guilty,” Kano local court Justice Sanusi Ado-Ma’aji said while delivering his judgment, adding that the prosecution had proven its case beyond any reasonable doubt.

Describing the sentence of death by hanging handed down by the Kano court as justice, the victim’s brother, Sadiq Sani said that whoever kills anyone deserved to be killed too. “We thank God for showing us this day… I pray that my sister’s soul continues to rest in peace,” he told the BBC.

Death sentences for capital offenses are common in Nigeria and sometimes involve foreigners. A Danish man in 2022 was sentenced to die by hanging for killing his wife and daughter.

However, executions rarely occur as they require approvals by state governors. Only two warrants for death sentences have been signed since 1999, AP quoted Inibehe Effiong, a Nigerian human rights lawyer, as saying.

Geng has up to three months to appeal his sentence at Nigeria’s Court of Appeal.
(With Inputs From AP)
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