At about 8 p.m in the night of 18th May, 1984, the deceased who was of the same parents with the appellant, was eating with their father, George Nwogugu (pW2) while the appellant was away. The appellant came in later after the deceased had finished eating. The appellant then went inside the house to cut something and the deceased asked him to come outside to cut the thing instead of doing so inside the house. For this, the appellant became angry and told the deceased to go away since he had taken his food and queried whether what he was cutting was on the deceased’s body. At that stage, P W 2 asked the deceased to leave the room since he had eaten his own food. PW2 asked the deceased to leave the room since he had eaten his own food.pw2 was at the backyard when he heard an alarm raised by the deceased that the appellant had given him a machete cut. Whereupon, pw2 and his wife (mother of the deceased and appellant, to wit: DW2) went into the room from whence the appellant bolted away into the dark of the night. As there was no light in the room, pw2 took light therein where he saw to his horror that the appellant had given the deceased a matchet cut on the neck. Both pw2 and DW1 raised alarm which attracted nobody; consequently pw2 had to race down to the Police Station to lodge a report. The police having informed him that they had no vehicle for the conveyance of the deceased to the hospital for treatment, pw2 returned to his house to find that the deceased had already died. Thereafter, his corpse was taken to the hospital where PW1, Doctor Chima Nwafor, performed the autopsy on it with PW2 identifying the body to him as that of his deceased son.

The prosecution called four witnesses in support of its case. Hearing commenced on March 6, 1985 while the appellant’s defence which began on June 14, 1985 and was concluded on the same day, was given support in the testimony of his mother. Teresa George (PW2). After the addresses of counsel, the learned trial Judge in a reserved Judgment delivered on January 20, 1986, found the appellant guilty and sentenced him to death.