Before the Benin Judicial Division of the High Court of Bendel State, the applicant herein was prosecuted on an information framed as hereunder

"At the sessions holden at Benin on the 19th day of January, 1977 the Court is informed by the Director of Public Prosecutions of Bendel State of Nigeria on behalf of the Slate that ANTHONY ABURIME is charged with the following of¬fence –

Official corruption, contrary to Section 82A(1)(a) of the Criminal Code, Cap 28 Volume I Laws of the former Western State of Nigeria 1959, applicable in the Bendel State of Nigeria.

ANTHONY ABURIME on or about the 28th day of August, 1976, in the premises of the Stale C.I.D,, Benin City, corruptly gave the sum of N200.00 in N10.00. Nigerian Currency notes as a gift for coke to one Joseph Akinyemi, a public official to wit; an Assistant Superintendent of Police attached to the Force C.I.D. Nigeria Police, Lagos, on account of favour to be afterwards shown by him to you to wit: to help you and save your name from being tarnished which meant that he should either refrain from further investigation of or act corruptly and partially in the investigation being conducted by him as a police officer into allegations against you of official corruption in relation to a case of armed robbery in which one late Chief Solomon Ogiemwenken was involved."

After hearing the evidence in support of the above charge, the court of trial (Ovie-Whiskey, C.J.), found the applicant guilty, convicted and sentenced him to a fine of N600.00 or imprisonment for 2 years in lieu thereof.

An appeal by the applicant against his conviction to the Federal Court of Appeal was allowed and the verdict set aside on the ground that the said conviction had contravened Section 22(10) of the Constitution of the Federation of Nigeria, 1963 which prescribes that no person shall be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefor is prescribed in a written law. The Federal Court of Appeal in arriving at its decision had taken the view that the charge as brought against the applicant did not satisfy the requirements prescribed under the section of the constitution quoted.

The prosecutor then appealed against the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal to this court and purported to do so under Section 21 of the High Court Law (Cap. 65 Vol. III, Laws of Bendel State, 1976). The said section vests a prosecutor aggrieved by the acquittal of an accused person after a trial In a criminal matter by the High Court sitting as a court of first instance, with a right of appeal to the Supreme Court as of right on the ground that the said decision is erroneous in law.

Before the Supreme Court, A objected that the Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the purported appeal and argued that Decree No.42 which came into force on 1st October, 1976 established a new hierarchy of appeal namely, the Federal Court of Appeal between the High Court, sitting as a court of first instance and Supreme Court and that in consequence thereof, Section 21 of the High Court Law no longer conferred a de jure right of appeal to the Supreme Court on a prosecutor after the Federal Court of Appeal had dealt with the matter: