Ayantoyinbo Alade Vs The State (1972)

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UDO UDOMA, JSC 

The appellant was convicted of the murder of Oba Emmanuel Olajide Olayode in the High Court of the Western State, Ibadan, by Agbaje, J. His appeal to the Western State Court of Appeal against that conviction was dismissed. Against that order of dismissal, he appealed to this court and on the 12th January, 1972, we dismissed the appeal and now give our reasons for doing so. The facts relied upon by the court in convicting the appellant have been admirably summarized in the judgments of the learned trial Judge and of the Western State Court of Appeal.

It is therefore not proposed to repeat them in detail but to deal briefly with them in this judgment. The case of the prosecution which was accepted by the learned trial Judge was that in the morning of 1st July, 1969, Oba Emmanuel Olajide Olayode, then the Shoun of Ogbomosho (hereinafter to be referred to as the Oba), held at his palace a meeting with the members of Agbekoya Society who then had expressed their dissatisfaction with, among things, the flat rate tax of £5.11s. At the meeting, members of Agbekoya Society in addition to asking for certain changes in Local Government service, offered to pay a flat rate tax of only £1.10s. After the Oba had given assurances that he would convey their grievances and offer to appropriate official quarters, the meeting ended apparently cordially and the members of the Agbekoya Society dispersed peacefully. Later three motor vehicle, loaded with policemen drove past the Oba’s palace.

When the Oba was informed of this, he became concerned and feared that there would be trouble because he had earlier been accused, apparently at the meeting, by the members of the Agbekoya Society of hiding some policemen somewhere in the town. Soon thereafter, gun shots were heard from the direction of the route followed by the Police vehicles. Then a crowd of people comprising members of the Agbekoya Society armed with guns, matchets, axes and charms rushed to the palace and began to chase about the occupants of the palace including the Oba. As a result, the Oba left the balcony of the first floor of the palace and descended to the ground floor where he went into hiding and had to move from one room to another and finally ended up in a room belonging to one Layiwola. According to the evidence, it was from Layiwola’s room that the Oba was dragged out by the hostile crowd, members of the Agbekoya Society, to a passage nearby and there he was matcheted, stabbed and knifed in the stomach which resulted in the contents thereof being exposed. When the hostile crowd finally dispersed, what was left of the body of the Oba at the passage was just a trunk. As observed in its judgment by the Western State Court of Appeal, as regards the part played by the appellant, himself a member of the Agbekoya Society, the learned trial Judge relied largely on the statements which the appellant made to the Police. In his statement dated 1/9/69, the appellant said in part:-

“That day when the Kabiyesi (meaning the Oba) was murdered I observed that the whole compound of Ile-Abo was filled up, we were all members of Agbekoya. From there we started our war to the house of Kabiyesi. Before we left, our chairman Jimoh Adisa told us to go and bring the head of Kabiyesi. The whole of us shouted. We headed for Kabiyesi’s palace. It was Garba Oyeniyi that the chairman instructed to go and bring the head to him.”

Earlier in the statement, the appellant had said;-

“I remembered that after the members of Agbekoya Society had murdered Kabiyesi on the first day of July, 1969, it was Garba Oyeniyi that brought the head of Kabiyesi to Abo’s compound, Ijeru, Ogbomosho and our chairman put the head at the shrine for four days.”

It is to be noted that at the close of the case for the prosecution, the appellant neither gave nor called any evidence at all. Learned counsel who appeared for him indicated to the court that he was resting he appellant’s defence on the case of the prosecution, He then addressed the court at length. It is thus clear that the evidence was just one way. The learned trial Judge very carefully and critically examined the evidence in the whole case, considered all possible legal issues raised by the evidence and concluded that the appellant was guilty of the offence charged, found him guilty, convicted and sentenced him to death.

The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Western State Court of Appeal. Before us, Mr. Onalaja who appeared for the appellant, quite rightly, in our view, intimated that after a careful scrutiny of the records, he could find nothing he could usefully urge on behalf of the appellant.

On an exhaustive examination of the proceedings and judgment in this appeal, we were satisfied that the appellant was rightly convicted by the learned trial Judge and that the confirmation of that conviction by the Western State Court of Appeal was justified and reasonable on the evidence.

We therefore dismissed the appeal.

Other Citation: (1972) LCN/1545(SC)