ISIAKU LALLUWA AUTA VS THE STATE

CORAM

COKER, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT

OBASEKE, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT

ELIAS,JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT

PARTIES

ISIAKU LALLUWA AUTA APPELLANTS

RESPONDENTS

AREA(S) OF LAW

SUMMARY OF FACTS

The accused, now appellant, pleaded not guilty to two offences preferred against him under Sections 221 and 247 of the Penal Code of the Northern States of Nigeria for culpable homicide punishable with death and voluntarily causing grievous hurt to one Yusufu Jafaru

HELD

The appeal was allowed, the conviction was set aside and the appellant was discharged and acquitted

ISSUES

Whether the learned trial Judge was wrong in law in putting the onus of proof on the accused person in the trial within trial

Whether the learned trial Judge was wrong in law in convicting the accused person having found that there was no common intention between the accused and his father Hassan and particularly when it was not proved that the deceased died as a result of the act of the accused.

RATIONES DECIDENDI

LIABILITY FOR CRIMINAL ACT

when the existence of a common intention between all the several persons who committed the criminal act and the criminal act itself are established, each of such persons would be liable for the entire criminal act; such criminal act includes all acts contemplated by the participants or which would ordinarily be done in furtherance of that common intention but not the unpremeditated acts of a participant.-Per Atanda Fatayi-Williams, JSC

THE BURDEN OF PROOF

Where the court conducted a trial within trial,the onus is on the prosecution which asserted that the statement was voluntary to prove that it was so made and they should have started.-Per Atanda Fatayi-Williams, JSC