CaseLaw
Oviefus V. State (1984) CLR 10(a) (SC)
Judgement delivered on October 13th 1984
Brief
Facts
On the 30th May 1980, appellant was convicted for the murder of his wife, contrary to s.254 and punishable under s.257 (1) of the Criminal Code, Cap. 28 Vol¬ume 1, Laws of the former Western Region, (now applicable In Oyo Stale). His appeal to the Court of Appeal against his conviction was dismissed on the 21st April, 1983. He has now appealed to this Court. At the time of the commission of the offence, appellant was a soldier with the Engineering Construction Regiment of the Nigerian Army at Oshogbo. He lived at Ede with his wife Agnes at No. 14 Timi Street. Peter Adeyale Olympus was also living at the same address. On the 6th November, 1978, Peter Adeyale Olympus. PW2, at about 3.30 a.m. heard some noise of fighting by two people. He traced the noise to appellant's room, and after appellant had failed to open the door on his entreaty, forced the door open and tried to separate appellant and his wife. He said that appellant was beating his wife. PW2 then shouted to call on co-tenants to come and help. Appellant ordered PW2 out of the room with the threat that he (appellant) would kill PW2 and Agnes if PW2 refused to leave. PW2 then ran to the soldiers barracks at Ede to report the incident. A military police officer was detailed to accompany PW2, but before they left the barracks they met appellant, who told them he wanted a car to take him to Iwo Town, where he would kill one woman and a soldier called Peter. Ap¬pellant was taken to the Brigade Commander PW6; where he reported that he (ap¬pellant) had just killed his wife. PW6 went to appellant's house to verify the claim by appellant that he had killed his wife. Appellant was handed over to the police for custody and investigation of the offence. Appellant made a voluntary statement to the police on the day of the incident. This statement was recorded by Sgt. Akinoye, PW4 and was attested to by an Assistant Superintendent of Police J. Ajayi, on the 11th November, 1978. The statement of appellant which amounts to a confession of the murder of Agnes was tendered by the prosecution and admitted in evidence.
The trial judge found for a fact that the accused was suffering from a delusion, but convicted the accused of murder.
The accused appealed to the Court of Appeal which dismissed his appeal, and then appealed to the Supreme Court.