M.O. THOMAS LANIYAN VS ALPHEUS DADEOWO
August 27, 2025EMMANUEL ODUFUWA & ANOR V. MRS AYO JOHNSON
August 27, 2025Legalpedia Citation: (1971) Legalpedia (SC) 16111
In the Supreme Court of Nigeria
Mon May 17, 1971
Suit Number: SC 16/1970
CORAM
ADEMOLA, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
LEWIS, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
MADARIKAN, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
PARTIES
JAFIYA KOPA APPELLANTS
RESPONDENTS
AREA(S) OF LAW
SUMMARY OF FACTS
The appellant was accused of killing one Massi, a woman, by stabbing her with a knife. There was no eye-witness to the killing and indeed there was no evidence connecting the appellant with the killing except a statement allegedly made by him confessing that he killed the deceased. He was tried at Maiduguri and sentenced to death.
HELD
The Court allowed the appeal of the appellant; acquitted and discharged him on a charge of culpable homicide punishable with death contrary to section 221 of the Penal Code.
ISSUES
Whether the learned trial judge was right in convicting the appellant based on the confessional statement alleged to have been made to the police without verifying same.
RATIONES DECIDENDI
TEST TO BE APPLIED TO CONFESSIONAL STATEMENTS
A man may be convicted on his own confession alone; there is no law against it. The law is that if a man makes a free and voluntary confession which is direct and positive, and is properly proved, a jury may, if they think fit, convict him of any crime upon it. But seldom, if ever, the necessity arises, because confessions can always be tested and examined, first by the police and then by you and us in Court, and the first question you ask when you are examining the confession of a man is, is there anything outside it to show it was true? Is it corroborated? Are the statements made in it of fact so far as we can test them true? Was the prisoner a man who had the opportunity of committing the murder? Is his confession possible? Is it consistent with other facts which have been ascertained and which have been, as in this case, proved before us?” Per Ademola, CJN
CASES CITED
R. v. Chukwuji Obiasa (1962) 1 All N.L.R. 651
R. v. Sykes (1913) 8 Cr. App. Rep. 233
STATUTES REFERRED TO
None
