Facts surrounding this case as contained in the printed Record of Appeal before this Court show that the Appellant as an accused person, together with one other, were charged before the High Court of Justice of Imo State holden at Owerri (trial Court), on an information of a single count of MURDER, contrary to Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code, Cap.30, vol. II, Laws of Eastern Nigeria, 1963, applicable to Imo State. It was alleged that on the 20th day of January, 1983, the two accused persons murdered one Benjamin Iheama, at plot 454, Ikenegbu Layout, Owerri. It was the case of the prosecution that the 1st accused, a full blood brother to Timothy Iheama (who testified as "PW1" and who shall hereinafter, be referred to as such in this judgment), was an apprentice trader. He later established his own trading business with the help of PW1. Thereafter, the deceased brought in the 1st accused with three other relations of his: Chibuzor Nwachukwu, Uchenna Nwachukwu and Christopher Ndulaka, in order to assist him in his business. The deceased was by then living at plot 454 Ikenegbu Layout, Owerri together with these people. Further, the 2nd accused was frequenting the house of the deceased from Lagos. The place of business of the deceased was at No. 4, Douglas Road, Owerri. Because of the suspicion PW1 had, he went to the father of the 1st accused and made a suggestion to him that the deceased and the 1st accused should be brought together for a settlement in order that they might not kill themselves. But the 1st accused rejected the suggestion.

The deceased was in the habit of calling on PW1 from time to time. But after sometime, PW1 could not see the deceased. It was the 1st accused that informed PW1 that the deceased went to Lagos and that from there he would go to Kaduna.

The 1st accused was selling goods at below the selling price and even used the vehicle of PW1 to convey the goods to Aba, the destination of one of the purchasers. PW1 did not know that the deceased had been killed at that time. It was the Police that gave him that information. The deceased was buried in a shallow grave along Orji Road.

The body of the deceased was later exhumed and a postmortem examination was carried out on the body by a doctor after PW1 identified the corpse.