Airman Kalu Who Killed Lover To Die By Hanging

 A General Court Martial, constituted by the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, has sentenced the young recruit, Air Craft Man, ACM, Kalu Bernard, to death by hanging for killing his enstranged lover, Solape Oladipupo, alias Shomzy Shomzy.

The 21-year-old Kalu had on March 12,  shot and killed Oladipupo at her Corporal and Below Quarters, Compound 9, Air Force Base, Makurdi on the suspicion that she was in a love relationship with another man.

Kalu was said to have, after breaking into Oladipupo’s home early hours of that Sunday morning, shot her on the neck at close range, and also attempted to kill the other man whom he had suspected that she was having a love affair with.

It however turned out that his riffle got hooked when he cocked it a second time, giving the other man the opportunity to fight for his life by struggling the riffle with Kalu until he was able to disarm him after which he was later arrested and detained.

Following the incident, the NAF immediately constituted a 10-man General Court Marshal for Kalu’s trial and he was subsequently arraigned for the first time on May 22, 2017.

The judgment, which started 9am on Tuesday, dragged till 4pm when it was stood down before the panellists reconvened at 7.30pm.

Reading out the 70-page court findings, which lasted for about two hours, the Judge Advocate, Flight Lieutenant M.A. Umoh, listed the eight-count charges against 21-year-old Kalu to include murder, house breaking, impersonation, attempted murder, among others.

The defence counsel, Abimiku Ewuga, urged the court to temper justice with mercy, saying the accused was his family breadwinner.

President of the court, Gp. Capt. Elisha Bindul, who found the accused guilty in six out of the eight counts, sentenced him to death by hanging, subject to the confirmation of the conveying authority.

At the end of the judgement, Ewuga told newsmen that the court has delivered its own judgement and had not erred in its decision but would surely move to the court of appeal as this general court marshal is not the final stage.

This was as the Prosecution Counsel, Oluremi Ilori hailed the judgement, stressing that everybody including the deceased would be happy with the outcome of the case.