ALHAJI MUFUTAU MOTUNWASE VS. ISAIAH SORUNGBE & ANOR
July 17, 2025BEN OBI NWABUEZE VS JUSTICE OBI OKOYE
July 17, 2025Legalpedia Citation: (1988-12) Legalpedia 71759 (SC)
In the Supreme Court of Nigeria
Holden At Lagos
Fri Dec 2, 1988
Suit Number: [1988] SC. 16/1987
CORAM
PARTIES
INYANG EDET
APPELLANTS
THE STATE
RESPONDENTS
AREA(S) OF LAW
CAUSE OF DEATH-CRIMINAL TRIAL IN HIGH COURT WITHOUT PRIOR WITHDRAWAL FROM MAGISTRATE COURT
SUMMARY OF FACTS
The appellant was convicted for murder and sentenced to death.
HELD
The Court held that it will be preposterous and indeed impossible to lay down a principle of law that whenever a broken bottle is the weapon employed in causing death, a verdict of manslaughter or culpable homicide not punishable with death must be the verdict to be returned.
ISSUES
1. Whether the appellant should have been discharged and acquitted of the charge of murder and the lesser offence of manslaughter on the ground that the proceedings in the court of first instance were a nullity because the prosecution were negligent in violating the constitutional rights of the Appellant by adopting a wrong procedure of charging him with murder in the High Court, Lagos when the earlier charge of manslaughter against him in the Magistrate’s Court, Yaba, was not withdrawn and thereby failed to give him a fair hearing within a reasonable time.
2. Whether, assuming that the appellant stabbed the deceased with a broken bottle, the appellant should have been discharged and acquitted of murder and convicted of manslaughter on the ground that the weapon used was a bottle and not a knife or pistol
RATIONES DECIDENDI
VALIDITY OF A CRIMINAL CHARGE.
‘It is improper for the prosecution to file two charges based on the same fact or incident in different courts as had been done here’- M.L. UWAIS, JSC.
CASES CITED
1. Aremu v. The State, (1984) 6 SC. 85 at p. 86
2. Akpuenyi v. The State (1976) 11 SC. 269
3. Amaefule v. The State (1988) 2 NWLR. 156
4. Inspector-General of Police v. Marke (1957) 2 FSC. 7
5. Okonji v. The State (1987) 3 SC. 175 at pp. 176, 200, 208 and 211;
STATUTES REFERRED TO
1. Criminal Code Cap. 31 Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 1983.
2. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1979|
