Funso Muraina
19 May 2008
Abuja — The Supreme Court has upturned the judgements of a lower court in which the accused were sentenced to death for the offence of culpable homicide and armed robbery.
Counsel to the appellants in the two appeals, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume said that he had the conviction that the decisions of the lower court would be set aside based on the evidence the appellants presented to the apex court.
He said that it is not in all cases that the convicts were guilty of the offence for which they were languishing in jail and that was the reason he insisted on following the case to the last point and was happy at the result.
In the first judgement involving one Dotun Fatilewa, he was charged to court in 1990 at the Abuja High Court for causing the death of one Mosiudi Atanda Arogundade who was the father of the first accused.
He was said to have aided the 1st accused who poisoned his father and goaded him to death using the wooden handle of a hoe to hit the deceased.
At the end of the trial which lasted for two years before justice Kusherki J., the accused was found guilty and sentenced to death, a decision that necessitated the appeal at the lower court.
The appeal court upheld the sentence and on further appeal to the supreme court, issue of confessional statement which was expunged by the lower court was addressed by the lawyer to the accused.
"Whether the honourable court of appeal having expunged Exhibit E the purported confessional statement was right to have relied on any other evidence particularly the evidence to affirm the conviction PW5 and sentencing of the appellant.
"Whether the honourable court of appeal was right to have held that the evidence of PW1-PW6 proved all the ingredients of the offence against the appellant contrary to the finding of the honourable trial court that the evidence of PW1-PW6 proved only the 1st ingredient of the offence.
"In his lead judgment, Justice George Oguntade said that since the lower court had expunged exhibit E , that is the confessional statement as inadmissible, it was an error to have convicted the accused.
"The consequence is that there was not a shred of admissible evidence against the appellant as to his complicity in the murder of the deceased.
Clearly in my view, the court below, which had itself ruled that the only evidence against the apellant, exhibit E was inadmissible was in error to have affirmed the conviction of the appellant.
"This is why in my view the court below was unable to specifically identify the pieces of evidence which it relied upon as establishing the guilt of the appellant. In a simple and direct language, there was no such evidence."
"In the final conclusion, I hold that this appeal is meritorious. I allow it and pronounce the appellant not guilty of the offence brought against him. He is accordingly discharged and acquitted."
The second case involved Abu Isah who was arraigned before a Kogi State High Court along with five others on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and armed robbery.Justice Olusiji found the accused guilty and handed down the judgment with a seven year jail term.
The appellant went on an appeal formulating two issues as to whether the trial court was right to hold that there was adequate identification evidence to arrive to a conclusion that the appellant committed the robberies; and whether his convision based on the prosecution's evidence was proper.The appeal failed at the lower court which agreed with the trial court and a further appeal was initiated at the supreme court and judgment in the case set the appellant free.Justice Sunday Akinola Akintan said that since the appellant denied the allegations and that he was in his house sleeping at the time of robbery, the police failed to establish nexus on his culpability."In the result I hold that the conviction of the applellant based solely on the unreliable evidence of the afore-mentioned witnesses should not be allowed to stand.
There is therefore merit in the appeal and it is accordingly allowed. The conviction and sentence passed on the appellant are therefore set aside. In their place I hereby enter a verdictof not guilty, discharged and acquitted", he ruled.
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