Shocking: Plateau Court Sentences Man To Death By Hanging For Strangling Wife For Refusing Him Sex

A man returned to his house at 1 a.m., insisted on having sex with his wife that had spent the whole day at the farm while he caroused about the town. The woman complained she was tired and begged for more time to rest, so as to be better ready to fulfil her filial duty.

Her protest was in vain as she got strangled by her spouse.

A Plateau High Court in Barkin-Ladi, where this incident was narrated, has sentenced the culprit, 37-year-old Benjamin Toma, to death by hanging for killing Vicky, the mother of his two children.

Justice Samson Gang, in a 68-page judgement, condemned Toma after he pleaded guilty to the one-count charge of culpable homicide, punishable with death, under section 221 of the penal code.

The incident was only one of the many cases of rising violence against women in Plateau state.

“We have recorded 430 cases of violence against women and girls in Plateau in the last few months. The situation keeps getting worse,”said Mrs. Comfort Zawaya, Senior Project Officer of the Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment in Nigerian Society (CWEENS).

The story of a lady, Charity Thomas, killed by her male friend, a married soldier was also illustrative of the worrisome trend.

The lady had visited the man. While in the kitchen, her phone rang in the living room. The man picked the call and the caller turned out to be another man. He rushed to the kitchen to demand the identity of the caller.

Just as the flustered Charity wondered why a married man should worry about her caller, the jealous lover, in a fit of anger, used the kitchen knife to stab the girl to death.

The army had promptly court-martialed Sunday Umaru, dismissed him after he was found guilty of killing Charity, and handed him over to the police for prosecution.

The dismissed soldier, Umaru, who was attached to the Special Task Force (STF) and on posting in Barkin-Ladi at the time of the incident, is currently facing a one-count charge of culpable homicide before a Barkin-Ladi High Court.