Briefly, the case against the appellants is that on the night of the 22nd of October, 1985 following an alarm raised that the residence of the late Igwe Dr. Amobi, was under attack by armed robbers, the police were drafted to the residence to contain the attack. It would appear that several contingents of police units were sent to the residence for this purpose. However with there being no result from the earlier units of the police sent to the rescue, it was decided that the Mobile Police Unit be sent to ferret out the alleged armed robbers from the residence and to rescue the late Igwe Dr. Benedict Amobi. But from what transpired it was not the alleged armed robbers that were brought out of the residence but the body of the late Igwe Dr. as planned. This is because on the morning of the next day when the police men and others entered the residence the alleged armed robbers were not seen, but late Igwe Amobi was found dead in a sitting position on the steps of the stair case leading to the upper floor of his residence. In that position, it was claimed that he had a double barrel gun across his laps and had bullet wound on his head and bullet marks were seen on the walls of the stair case. And that suggested that shots must have been fired into and/or inside the residence. A post mortem examination conducted upon the body of the deceased confirmed that he received gun shots before he died, and he died from haemorrhage. Incidentally the appellant were the officers in charge of the Police Mobile Unit which was drafted to the rescue, and evidence was led that during their operation gun shots were fired to get at the alleged armed robbers who were said to be in the residence of the late Igwe Dr. Benedict Amobi.

A no-case submission was made by the appellants but the trial judge over-ruled the submissions and held that the evidence against the appellants raised the presumption of guilt unless contradicted by the explanations of the appellants. Dissatisfied, the appellants went on appeal.