It was common ground that the appellant and the deceased were husband and wife and lived together in the same house at No.61 Jubrila Street, Itire, Surulere. They also shared the same room. On the 25th day of February, 1973, Augustine Ekperi (P.W.6) called at the residence of the appellant to see the appellant and the deceased. He met only the deceased at home but in a horrible condition which he described to the Court as follows:

P.W.6 later removed her to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in a taxi but she died later that day. Before her death, Peter Ikpama, P.W.2 a junior brother of the deceased and Blackie Okoro, a sister of the deceased called to see her in the Hospital. P.W. 2 identified her corpse to the doctor, Dr. Nosirudeen Olaseni Akinlade (P.W.9) before he performed the autopsy on the body. The doctor found 7 machet cuts on her body and certified that the cause of her death was due to haemorrhage from the multiple machet cuts.

As the appellant could not be found, he was declared a wanted person by the police and on the 28th day February, he was arrested by the police. On being charged by the police with the murder of the deceased, he made confessional statements Exhibits C and D.

At the hearing, he denied making any confessional statement to the police. He denied knowing anything about the assault on his wife, except that some bandits had invaded his apartment, attacked him with machet and drove him out. He took refuge in a gutter leaving his wife at their mercy.

The learned trial judge rejected his defence and accepted the truth of the con-fessional statement as established. He dismissed the issue of provocation and convicted the appellant.

Appellant appealed to the Supreme Court.