CaseLaw
Nonso Okeke Vs. The State (2016) CLR 1 (q) (SC)
Judgement delivered on January 22nd 2016
Brief
Facts
This is an appeal against the judgment of the court of Appeal, Lagos Division, hereinafter referred to as the court below, affirming the conviction and sentence of the appellant by the High Court of Lagos State, the trial court, in charge No. LCD/56/2006. Whereas the trial court's judgment was delivered on 13th day of April 2010, the lower court's judgment being appealed from to this Court on thirteen grounds was delivered on 25th June 2012. A brief summary of the facts leading to this appeal is given at once below.
Respondent's case is that appellant conspired with one Nkenna Onyegbu, now deceased, to murder Chinwe Ofomata. Two witnesses gave evidence to prove the case against the appellant: PW1, Ubaka Onyegbu the brother of Chinwe Ofomata, killed on the 28th October 2004 and PW2, the investigating police officer from the Yaba Police Station Criminal Investigation Department. The prosecution's case is built on Exhibits A-A2 and B; appellant's statements at Festac and Panti Police Stations respectively. The trial court, which decision the lower court affirmed, found the statements confessional. A further reliance was placed on Exhibit D, the post-mortem medical report and a black cable used by the appellant and his co-conspirator to strangle their victim.
The appellant denied conspiring and murdering Chinwe Ofomata. He also denied making the statements tendered as his and recorded on the 13-11-2004 at the Panti Police Station. It is further his case that, along with Nkenna Onyegbu, he was moved from Festac Police Station to the Panti Police Station where on the 17th - 11 - 2004, Nkenna died in the cell. It was on 25/11/2004, after he had been left in the sun all day long, that the police requested him to write his statement. He was too weak to write the statement. He neither volunteered nor signed any statement to the police. The appellant maintains that he was taken to the Magistrate Court the next day. He was subsequently arraigned before the trial court for trial at the conclusion of which he was convicted for conspiracy and the murder of the deceased contrary to Sections 324 and 319 (1) of the Criminal Code Law CAP 17 Laws of Lagos State 2003.
The affirmation of the trial court's judgment by the lower court brought about the instant appeal.