CORAM
SALIHU MODDIBBO ALFA BELGORE, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
UWANI MUSA ABBA AJI
EMMANUEL OLAYINKA AYOOLA, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
PARTIES
UCHENNA NWACHUKWU APPELLANTS
RESPONDENTS
AREA(S) OF LAW
SUMMARY OF FACTS
The appellant and two others aided their brother in the murder of the deceased. His oral confession to PW 2, led to the discovery of where the deceased was buried.
HELD
The court held that the appellant was rightly convicted of murder by the trial court.
ISSUES
1. Whether the medical report (Exhibit E) as well as P.W. 2’s story pertaining to what the appellant allegedly told P.W. 2 that the appellant saw and heard at the scene of the commission of the offence were rightly admitted in evidence and if not, did such inadmissible evidence not occasion substantial miscarriage of justice in this case?2. Whether the purported circumstantial evidence adduced by the prosecution in this case sufficiently established the guilt of the appellant beyond reasonable doubt as laid down by law?
RATIONES DECIDENDI
MEANING OF ACCOMPLICE
Where an offence is committed every person who “aids” another person in committing the offence is deemed to have taken part in the commission of the offence and to be guilty of the offence and may be charged with actually committing it – Iguh J.S.C.
WHEN CONFESSION CAN GROUND A CONVICTION
A free and voluntary confession of guilt by a prisoner, whether judicial or extrajudicial, if it is direct and positive and is duly made and satisfactorily proved, is sufficient to warrant a conviction without any corroborative evidence. So long as the court is satisfied with the truth of a confession which is free and voluntary and in itself fully probable, such confession alone is sufficient to support conviction without corroboration… extrajudicial confession, though made orally, as in the present case, would carry no less weight than the one that is made in writing – Iguh J.S.C
CASES CITED
Solomon Ehot v. The State (1993) 4 N.W.L.R. 644 Jimoh Odubeko v. Victor Fowler and Another (1993) 7 N.W.L.R. 637 at 665,Benson v. Onitiri (1960) 5 F.S.C. 69Jafiya Kopa v. The State (1971) 1 All N.L.R. 150 Olusegun Otufale and others v. The State (1968) N.M.L.R. 261, Uche and Another v. R. (1964) 1 All N.L.R. 195
STATUTES REFERRED TO
The Criminal procedure ActEvidence Act