The Appellants were convicted at Umuahia High Court of the murder of Sampson Etim on November 30, 1990 and sentenced to death.

The case for the Prosecution was that on April 22, 1988 the deceased, his wife Alice Sampson (P.W.2) and two friends of his named Friday Ben (P.W.3) and James Okoro (P.W.4) went to harvest cassava from the deceased’s farm. After a while on the farm, the deceased decided to go to his portion of his cassava farm which was harvested by thieves from Ndiwo Village. He was soon after halted by about 20 persons as to what he was doing on the farm. A noisy argument soon ensued when one of the persons 'ordered "shoot him! shoot him!". Immediately the deceased was shot and he fell and died on the spot. The matter was reported to the police after investigation, the Appellants together with three other persons were put on trial. The Appellants were in the gang that killed the deceased. P.W.3 had known them before this incident; he mentioned their names in his statement to the police and also in the Court. The police conducted an identification parade in which P.W.2, P.W.3 and P.W.4 identified some of the accused persons.

The learned trial Judge found the case against the 1st accused, Okechukwu Benedict not proved. Accordingly he was acquitted and discharged. He however found the Appellants, Damian Etim and Boniface Iseh guilty of murder as charged.

They appealed against their conviction to the Court of Appeal. The appeal of Boniface Iseh who was the 2nd Appellant before that Court, was allowed. He was accordingly acquitted and discharged. The appeals of the appellants and Damian Etim were dismissed. The Appellants Jerome Akpan, Monday Imo, Peter Uyaudoh and Peter Job have further appealed to this Court.