CaseLaw
Adeyemi V. State (2013) CLR 4(i) (SC)
Judgement delivered on April 12th 2013
Brief
Facts
This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Holden at Ibadan delivered on the 16th day of November, 2011 allowing the appeal of appellant but ordering a retrial after declaring the trial a nullity due to the fact that the accused persons, including appellant, did not plead to the charge before trial.
It is the case of the prosecution that appellant together with two others conspired to murder and did murder one Maria Adeniyi on the 15th day of July, 2000, Appellant made a confessional statement which was tendered and admitted at the trial though appellant denied making it. The deceased was invited by appellant to work for them in their block making site as a labourer on 15th July, 2000 but when the deceased failed to return home after close of work her husband, PW1 organised a search party, after reporting the matter to the police but the search yielded no positive result.
The deceased was subsequently declared missing. The prosecution contends that appellant and his co-accused persons, including appellant in SC/485/2011, had sex with the said Maria Adeniyi, a.k.a Iya ibeji before cutting off her head and private parts which included her breast, after which fey buried her body in a grave around the site. Appellant's confessional statement was admitted, along with those of the co-accused persons after a trial within trial as they objected to their admission, though appellant later withdrew his objection.
As stated earlier, appellant and the co-accused persons were convicted of the offences and sentenced to death by hanging. The judgment of the trial court was however set aside on appeal giving rise to the instant further appeal
Issues
"Whether from the circumstances and evidence led at trial, it is proper and...