CaseLaw
Abubakar Sale V. The State (2015) CLR 12 (x) (SC)
Judgement delivered on December,11th 2015
Brief
Facts
The brief facts of this case are that:- the appellant and the other accused persons were alleged to have entered the house of Pw2 and at gun point robbed him of his money and also that of his wife of the various sums stated in the count supra.
After the robbery, the appellant and his cohorts escaped with their loot. Pw2 in narrating what transpired during the robbery stated inter-alia that the robbers who robbed him and his wife did not cover their faces and there was light in the room where the robbery took place.
One month or thereabout, the appellant was able to identify one of the robbers in Zuru town on a market day, and he caused him to be arrested and taken to a police station where investigations commenced which led to the arrest of the other co-accuseds; that in the course of investigation, the appellant confessed to have participated in the robbery but only to re-tract same after the commencement of trial.
The complainant, as Pw2, in his evidence in Chief before the learned trial Chief Judge testified to the effect that, on the night of 18/02/2003 he was woken up from sleep by the shouts of one of his wives. He saw the accused and the appellant holding a gun, a stick and matchet and threatened to kill him if he did not give them money which he obliged by giving them the money as stated in the 2nd count, reproduced supra. At the end of the trial, the 3rd accused was acquitted and discharged
Defendant stated further that at a point in time, the Plot Allotment Committee in the area tried to encroach on his land so he went before the Oba and made a report. That the Oba called up the Ogidas to the Palace and when the matter was looked into, the Oba decided in his favour. He tendered a written decision of the Oba as Exhibit 'H'. He later obtained a Deed of Conveyance, Exhibit 'E' registered as No.14 at page 14 in Volume 15 of the Lands Registry in the Office at Benin City.