…Remanded in prison till August 29
* Diyya (ransom for life) is close to N50m, 60 days of fasting
Aminu Shehu Yar’adua, the niece of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, has denied crushing four people to death in an auto crash in Yola, Adamawa state, northeast Nigeria.
The 36 years old Yar’Adua Jnr, a student of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) Yola, was charged to court for allegedly causing death by reckless driving on June 23, 2021.
According to the police First Information Report (FIR) Thursday, tendered before a by the prosecutor, Inspector Zakka Musa, the accused had, while driving along Yola bye pass on June 23, 2021, crushed six people as a result of overspeeding.
The court heard that four of the victims were killed, while the other two were injured in the accident, with the victims all hailing from Sabon Pegi, Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State, northeast Nigeria.
“Those that died in the accident were identified as; Aisha Umar (30), Aisha Mamadu (32), Suleiman Abubakar(2) and Jummai Abubakar (30), while, Rejoice Annu (28) and Hajara Aliyu(27) sustained injuries”, according to the FIR.
The prosecuting officer told the court that the relatives of the deceased demanded the sum of N15 million from the defendant as compensation.
However, when the FIR was read to the defendant as prayed by the prosecutor, he denied committing the offence, describing the allegation as untrue.
At that point, the prosecutor pleaded with the court to adjourn the matter, to enable him duplicate the case file and forward to the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for legal advice.
The Magistrate, Jummai Ibrahim granted the prosecutor’s request and adjourned the matter to 19th August, 2021, for further mention and ordered that the defendant be remanded in prison custody until then, NAN reported.
Imam in a Friday Qutba, frowned at how reckless the weed-smoking, drunk-driving youths without attitude, commercial tricyclists and motorists reduced the roads to butchery; claiming lives.
The Qutba has called on the the Nigerian government to take to the Makkah and Madinah model by insisting on monetary compensation for life, which he estimated to be about fifty million naira, which he pointed out, will make motorists to be conscious of driving.
By this calling, if found guilty as charged, Yar’adua Jnr would not escape paying about two hundred million naira as compensation for the four lives lost. This is in addition to fasting for two month for the unintentional killing of an individual faithful.
“The evidence from the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of the Prophet SWT and the books of jurists, (may Allah have mercy upon them) is that whoever kills a group of people by mistake, he has to expiate for each person that he killed, as each person is a separate case.
“The expiation is to free a Muslim slave, and if one is unable to do so, he has to fast two consecutive months.
“Allah SWT says; ‘And whosoever kills a believer by mistake, (it is ordained that) he must set free a believing slave and compensation (blood money, i.e. Diyah) be given to the deceased’s family, unless they remit it. If the deceased belonged to a people at war with you and he was a believer; the freeing of a believing slave (is prescribed), and if he belonged to a people with whom you have a treaty of mutual alliance, compensation (blood money-Diyah) must be paid to his family, and a believing slave must be freed. And whosoever finds this (the penance of freeing a slave) beyond his means, he must fast for two consecutive months in order to seek repentance from Allah. And Allah is Ever All-Knowing, All-Wise.’ Qur’an 4:92.
“However, if one is unable to fast, he has to feed sixty poor people for each soul, and this is by analogy; this is the view of the Shaafi’ee school and a narration by Ahmad,” the Qutba explained.