CaseLaw
Owie V. State (1985) CLR 4(c) (SC)
Judgement delivered on April 12th, 1985
Brief
Facts
Clement Etomi was a boarding student of the Obayantor Grammar School, Benin City, where the appellant was employed as a night guard. On the 28th January 1984, the teachers of the school were on strike and most of the students who were boarders were sent to their respective homes leaving some few male students and female students. The deceased, Clement Etomi, was not present at school when the order was given requesting the students to vacate the school premises. On his return to the school premises, he joined the few students who remained behind and there was no evidence that the school authorities opposed his stay or that the appellant has any specific instruction to prevent him from remaining in the school compound. On the fateful day, at about 8.30 p.m., some of the students after the evening meal proceeded to walk out of the compound. Clement Etomi was one of such students. He met the appellant at the school gate and he and others were halted by the appellant. There was no suggestion that he or any of them refused to stop or that the appellant mistook them as intruders or thieves. He knew they were students. The evidence of 1st, 2nd and 3rd P.Ws, who were present at the scene, was that the appellant accused the deceased of previously insulting him and threatened that he would shoot him with the double-barrel gun he was carrying. The 1st P.W. testified that he pleaded with the appellant not to carry out his threat, but that the appellant refused. He testified that the deceased did not reply nor did he engage the appellant in any struggle. The appellant was adamant and pointed his gun, first to the leg of the deceased, and later took a cool shot at his chest and fired the gun. The deceased slumped down and died on the spot almost immediately.
The appellant then fled and reported the incident to the police at Benin City, where the other students later met him. From the police station, the appellant and the other students together with a police Inspector, P.W.7, proceeded to the school premises where the corpse of Clement Etomi was lying covered in his blood. They all removed the corpse to the Specialist Hospital in Benin City where it was deposited.
At the police station later, the appellant was charged with the murder of Clement Etomi and he volunteered a statement after caution, which was recorded by the 7th P.W. in Pidgin English and signed by the appellant. The witness, P.W.7, testified he read it over to the appellant before he signed it as correct.
Accused was charged and convicted of the murder of the student. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal.
Upon further appeal, it was argued that the trial judge erred in law in admitting into evidence a statement made by the accused which had not been read over to the accused after a police officer recorded it.