{"id":3461,"date":"2025-12-10T15:33:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T15:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/?p=3461"},"modified":"2025-12-10T15:33:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T15:33:39","slug":"police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/index.php\/2025\/12\/10\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Sergeant sentenced to death for killing Uni-Jos student"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Plateau state High Court sitting in Jos has sentenced a police officer, Sgt. Ruya Auta, to death for the killing of a University of Jos student, Rinji Bala.<br \/><br \/>The judgment was delivered on Tuesday by the Chief Justice of Plateau State, Justice David Mann, at High Court 1. The court found the officer guilty of culpable homicide and ordered that he be executed by hanging.<br \/><br \/>Rinji Bala, a 300-level student of the University of Jos, was shot dead on May 12, 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown. He was with two of his friends near the Hwolshe area of Jos when they were arrested by the police.<br \/><br \/>It was established in court that the three young men were searched and nothing illegal was found on them. Despite this, they were beaten and later told to run after being released. As Rinji ran, he was shot from behind by the officer and died immediately.<br \/><br \/>After the judgment, the prosecuting lawyer, Dr. Garba Pwul (SAN) explained that although the officer claimed the shooting was a mistake, the evidence showed that Rinji was shot in the back, proving it was not accidental.<br \/><br \/>Rinji\u2019s father, Peter Bala said \u201cNo sane person celebrates the death of another person, but the law has taken its course,\u201d he said.<br \/><br \/>He added that he hopes the ruling will serve as a deterrent to other security officers against careless use of their weapons.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Plateau state High Court sitting in Jos has sentenced a police officer, Sgt. Ruya Auta, to death for the killing of a University of Jos student, Rinji Bala. The judgment was delivered on Tuesday by the Chief Justice of Plateau State, Justice David Mann, at High Court 1. The court found the officer guilty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Police Sergeant sentenced to death for killing Uni-Jos student - Security Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Police Sergeant sentenced to death for killing Uni-Jos student\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/index.php\/2025\/12\/10\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police Sergeant sentenced to death for killing Uni-Jos student\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Police Sergeant sentenced to death for killing Uni-Jos student\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/index.php\/2025\/12\/10\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Security Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-10T15:33:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.securityfocus.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Nigerian-police-400x240.jpg.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Security Focus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Security Focus\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/10\\\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/10\\\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Security Focus\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d04afd64c43f5a53d7361fcf06efc4fe\"},\"headline\":\"Police Sergeant sentenced to death for killing Uni-Jos student\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-10T15:33:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/10\\\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/10\\\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Nigerian-police-400x240.jpg.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/10\\\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/10\\\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.securityfocus.ng\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/10\\\/police-sergeant-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-uni-jos-student\\\/\",\"name\":\"Police Sergeant sentenced to death for killing Uni-Jos student - 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