The Kaduna State government on Thursday asked a Kaduna high court to sentence 50 Shiite members to death for allegedly causing the death of a soldier.
The state government had filed a five-count charge against the accused before Justice David Wyom.According to The Cable online newspaper, the state government accused them of criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, culpable homicide, disturbance of public peace and wrongful restrain.
In the petition, Bayero Diri, counsel for the government, said the offences were punishable under Sections 97, 221, 102, 106 and 225 of the penal code law, laws of Kaduna state 1991.
The government said the offence was committed between December 12 and 14, 2015 in Zaria.
It alleged that the suspects, among other things, shot dead one Yakubu Dankaduna, a colonel of the Nigerian army, “with a gun when he alighted from the convoy to disperse the IMN members.”
Section 102 of the penal code prescribes death sentence for such offence.
The prosecution told the court that they would present 39 witnesses.
The plea of the accused persons was not taken, as the judge adjourned sitting till May 16.
Fifty suspects were among the 265 persons currently in custody, who were arrested during the Shi’ites clash with the army on December 12 and December 14, 2015.
Meanwhile, the Department of State Services said on Thursday at the Justice Muhammad Lawal Garba Judicial of Inquiry on Army/Shiites clash that the sole aim of the Shi’ites was to establish an Islamic State.
The Kaduna State Director of the DSS, Mustapha Sani, said the allegation was based on the doctrines and allegiance of the Shi’ites group to the Republic of Iran.
Sani, who testified before the panel, insisted that the group received financial support from Iran, alleging that the Movement never recognised the sovereignty of Nigeria as a nation.