The Respondent who was a Wing Commander in the Nigerian Air Force was attached to its Pay Accounting Group until the month of April 1996. Before then, it was discovered that with ten other officers of the Nigerian Air Force and all attached to the Pay Accounting Group were involved with fraudulent offences which included stealing, corruption and conspiracy to commit several civil offences. As a result of this discovery, the officers were arraigned before the General Court Martial (GCM). But when the Court was convened for the trial of the ten officers, the Respondent was not present. The General Court Martial then carried out the trial of the remaining nine accused persons who were physically present before the Court. The nine officers so tried were each found guilty and convicted accordingly.

That done, the General Court Martial then proceeded with the trial of the Respondent in his absence on a 12 count charge laid against him before that Court. The offences disclosed in the charge include, stealing, conspiracy to defraud, forgery and altering forged documents, receiving stolen property. For the purposes of this trial, the prosecutor did not call any oral evidence in support of his case. Rather with the consent of the Court pursuant to the provisions of Section 34 of the Evidence Act, he merely tendered the statements of all the seven witnesses who testified at the earlier trial conducted by the General Court Martial, at the end of which the nine other accused persons were convicted- On the basis of that kind of evidence, and with the Respondent who was never before that Court, the Court found him guilty and was convicted of eleven of the 12-count charge levelled against him. Following that conviction, he was sentenced to a total of 51 years imprisonment. A restitution order was also made against him in respect of his properties and other personal assets to the value of about N34,125,000.00.

As the Respondent was not satisfied with the judgment of the General Court Martial, he appealed to the Court below. That Court, after due consideration of the arguments advanced before it, allowed the Respondent's appeal and set aside the judgment of the General Court Martial. The Court below further ordered that the Respondent be discharged and acquitted. It is against that judgment of the Court below that the Appellants have appealed to this Court.