CORAM
IKECHl FRANCIS OGBUAGU, JUSTICE SUPREME COURT
OKAY ACHIKE JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
ALOYSIOUS IYOGYER KATSINA-ALU, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
PARTIES
UWE IDIGHI ESAI KPONUKO EDWIN EDET SAM UDOYO EFFIONG OKWONG APPELLANTS
RESPONDENTS
AREA(S) OF LAW
SUMMARY OF FACTS
The deceased knocked down a cyclist. The appellants ran after the deceased and forcibly removed him from the compound he had fled for safety. They took therefore took him away. The cyclists pair of trouser was later found in a cassava farm. The appellants were convicted of murder.
HELD
The court upheld the conviction of the first appellant and discharged the other appellants as there was no evidence that they participated in the abduction of the deceased person
ISSUES
Whether or not the appellants have been rightly convicted in relation to the totality of the evidence before the court
RATIONES DECIDENDI
PROOF OF DEATH BY CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
On a charge of murder, the fact of death is provable by circumstantial evidence, notwithstanding that neither the body nor any trace of the body has been found and that the prisoner has made no confession of any participation in the crime…The circumstantial evidence should be so cogent and compelling as to convince a jury that on no rational hypothesis other than murder can the facts be accounted for… BELLO, JSC
CASES CITED
See Rex v. Sala Sati (1938) 3 WACA 10
Ogundite & Ors. v. The Queen (1954) 14 WACA 458
Mical Onufrejczyk (1953) 39 Cr. App. R.I
Mounwem & 4 Ors. v. The Queen (1963) 1 All NLR 95
STATUTES REFERRED TO
Sections 8 and 316The Criminal Code