A Kaduna State High Court has sentenced three defendants to a combined 21 years in prison over charges of conspiracy and intention to commit culpable homicide in the case of The State Vs. Ayuba Barde & 5 others KDH/KAD/88C/2014 — bringing an end to a legal battle that has stretched for more than a decade and raised serious concerns over delays in Nigeria’s judicial process.
The men, arrested in January 2014, were accused of attacking the late Chief of Jere, Dr. Sa’ad Usman, his driver and an orderly along the SSC Jere–Bwari Road in Kagarko Local Government Area. The defendants consistently pleaded not guilty.
The case passed through several judges, restarted multiple times, and witnessed prolonged periods without bail. The final judgment was delivered on 19 November 2025 by Justice Buhari M. Balarabe, who found the men guilty of conspiracy and intention to commit culpable homicide. However, the court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that the Chief’s death in April 2020 — six years after the incident — was linked to the alleged attack.
Each defendant received five years for conspiracy and ten years for intention to commit culpable homicide, to run concurrently. Despite the court acknowledging that the men had already spent 11 years in custody, the judgment means they will remain in prison for an additional decade.
Lead defence attorney, Gloria Mabeiam Ballason Esa, disagrees with the judgment, describing it as “against the weight of evidence” and “not supported by law, justice or fairness.”
“To hand down 21 years imprisonment for conspiracy and intention is not contemplated by law. Not even the devil knows the intention of the heart of man,” she said.
Ballason also raised concerns about the conduct of the proceedings, citing the refusal of the court to entertain bail applications until after the full hearing — a move she said violated constitutional guarantees of presumption of innocence and fair trial.
She further noted that no medical report establishing the cause of death of the traditional ruler was tendered in evidence, leaving what she described as “a break in the chain of causation.”
The defence argues that the unusually long duration of the case — involving repeated transfers between judges and a trial that restarted several times — undermines public confidence in the justice system. “Eleven years for a criminal trial under a democracy is simply not justifiable,” Ballason stated.
The defendants plan to appeal the judgment, with their legal team insisting there are strong grounds to challenge both the conviction and the sentencing.
The Kaduna State Ministry of Justice, represented in court by Solicitor-General J. N. Azumi Esq, declined to make comments on the record.
The case, already drawing national attention, is expected to face renewed scrutiny as it moves to the appellate courts, where legal observers say it may become a test of Nigeria’s commitment to fair trial standards and judicial reform.
Middle-Belt Times 