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CaseLaw

Francis V. FRN (2020) CLR 5(e) (SC)

Judgement delivered on May 22nd 2020

Brief

  • Exercise of court discretion
  • Judgement
  • Application before a court – Effect where it has no legal backing
  • Allocutus
  • Notice of appeal
  • Judicial discretion
  • Adjournment application
  • SentencingJudicial notice
  • Counsel
  • Section 27(4) of the Supreme Court Act
  • Section 27(2)(b) of the Supreme Court Act,
  • Section 131 of the Evidence Act, 2011
  • Section 132 of the Evidence Act, 2011
  • Section 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act 2004 .
  • Order 2 Rule 31 of the Supreme Court Rules

Facts

The charge the Appellant, at page 6 of the Record, pleaded guilty to, reads thus- CHARGE

That you, NWEKE CHIBUEZE FRANCIS male, adult on or about the 14th day of May, 2009 during the outward clearance of a Royal Dutch Airline flight to Holland at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos exported 1.416 kilograms of cocaine without lawful authority and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap. N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

The charge was part of the Proofs of Evidence served on the Appellant before his arraignment before the Federal High Court, Lagos, on 5th November, 2009.

The Appellant was represented by a Counsel of his choice. On the said date, upon the charge read and explained to him, the Appellant pleaded Not Guilty and both the prosecuting and defending Counsel requested that hearing be adjourned to 7th December, 2009, to commence. The trial Court (O.C. Abang, J) obliged.

At the resumed sitting, on 7th December, 2009, the Appellant, in the presence of his Counsel, Mrs. Ngozi Ekwensi, changed his Not Guilty plea to the plea of Guilty after the charge was again read and explained to him. Thereafter the defence acquiesced in the Prosecution's tendering from the Bar of 11 documents, frontloaded in the Proofs of Evidence. They include the following incriminating documents-

  • - The confessional statement he made on 14th May, 2009,
  • - Four separate statements he made in the course of excretion of the substances
  • - His duly signed Packing of Substance Form
  • - The receipt of seizure he signed on the 4 separate occasions
  • - Drug analysis Report showing that the substance recovered from him was infact cocaine
  • - The excreted substance contained in four separate transparent pouches
  • - A large envelope containing the analysed specimen from the laboratory
  • - Evidence Pouch containing 3,050.00 Euros, 413,000.00 CFars recovered from the Appellant
  • - Appellant's International Passport No. A3820735A, KLM Flight ticket

Upon the documents/items admitted in evidence without objection, the prosecuting Counsel prayed the trial Court to summarily convict the Appellant as charged. He was accordingly, "convicted as charged".

Issues

  • The appeal was determined on its merit...
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