On 31st day of De¬cember 1 984, one lady by name Queen Ero, now deceased, was going to buy bread and was accompanied by her sister Esole Ero (P.W.6) As they were going on the road they got to a place by the front of the house of the appellant, Corporal Andrew Enrwenya, when an accident occurred involving the daughter of the appellant and a car driven by a woman. The accident attracted a crowd including the mother of the appellant who came out of the house to see her grand-daughter who sustained a broken leg in the accident. The deceased and her sister (P.W.6) helped the woman driver of the accident car to dispatch the girl to the hospital. After the departure of the victim of the accident and the car from the scene, the mother of the girl was crying and the deceased followed her towards the house commiserating with her. At this juncture, the appellant who never saw the accident and probably only heard of it, arrived at the scene and asked the deceased whether she was the driver of the car involved in the accident that injured his daughter. The deceased answered in the negative and went further to explain that she and her sister were only trying to help and as neighbours they were there trying to calm down the appellant's mother who was crying and to see her into the house. There and then the appellant slapped the deceased whereby she fell down; as she was on the ground the appellant hit her with a hammer he was holding on her chest, kicked her and stamped on her stomach. The deceased was shouting for help whereby her sister, P.W.6, rushed to their house nearby to inform their parents of what was going on. The P.W.6 returned to the scene with their mother, P.W.4 and people who were attempting to revive the deceased who was unconscious. There P.W.4 challenged the appellant who in turn threatened her after some altercations, with iron rod. P.W.6 and P.W.4 then carried the deceased to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The appellant, a soldier, disappeared for three years from Benin City and efforts to trace his unit was futile. When he sneaked into the city three years later, he was apprehended. He denied ever attacking anybody and said he could not remember seeing either the deceased or the P.W.6 at the scene of accident where his daughter was hit by a vehicle: All he remembered was that on 26th June, 1 988, when he was at his house some persons came and alleged that he was the one that killed Queen Ero and they beat him up, tore his uniform and removed his army identity card after removing N343.00 from his pocket.

At his trial at the High Court, Benin City, learned trial Judge, Akpiroroh J, after a thorough review of the whole evidence for prosecution and defence found as follows: