Chief Judge of Taraba, Justice Joel Agya, yesterday sentenced Yusufa Adamu and Adamu Abdullahi to death by hanging for kidnapping Balkisu Kambe and Maryam Musa in Gashaka local government area of the state.

Agya, who delivered the judgement at the Taraba High Court 1 in Jalingo, said the prosecution counsel proved beyond reasonable doubt that the duo committed the crime in 2019.

He also found them guilty on the charges of criminal conspiracy and illegal possession of firearms.

According to him, the defendants had made confessional statements individually about the kidnapping of Balkisu Kambe at Angwan America in Baruwa on September 29, 2019 and that of Maryam Musa on September 2, 2019 at Serti and others in Gashaka LGA were they collected ransom.

He noted that one of the victims, Kambe identified the defendants as members of the gang that abducted her in her house when they could not find her husband in his room on that day, saying they unmasked themselves when they took her to the bush for two days before her husband sent them one million Naira ransom.

“Based on Section three, paragraph eight of the Kidnapping and Abduction Law of Taraba State (2019), I hereby sentence you to death by hanging on the neck, may God have mercy on your souls.

“You however, have the right to apply to the Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy for a sentence to be committed to life imprisonment especially since no life was lost in the process of kidnapping,” he said.

The prosecution counsel, Mr Samson Gimba, hailed the judgement as sound and commendable.

Counsel to the defendants, Mr Mahanar Puki, had pleaded for mercy when the guilty verdict was pronounced before the judge passed the sentence.

Puki had told the court that the convicts were first time offenders and had shown remorse throughout the period of trial and should be shown some mercy.