Godwin Igabele V The State (2006)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

ONU, J.S.C.

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division sitting at Enugu, delivered on the 18th day of March, 2004 wherein the Court of Appeal (hereinafter referred to as the court below) affirmed the conviction and sentence to death passed on the appellant as earlier pronounced by the trial court – the High Court, Enugu.

The relevant facts of this case may be succinctly stated as follows:

The appellant was on 7th day of February, 1990 arraigned before the Enugu High Court in a charge of murder of one Gerald Chikezie Ozo Okeke pursuant to the provisions of section 319(1) Criminal Code Cap.30 Vol. 11 Laws of Eastern Nigeria, 1963 applicable to Enugu State.

The appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge. The prosecution thereafter called nine witnesses in proof of its case, the summary of which was that the appellant, a professional motor driver was in the employ of PW3 (Mr. Orakwulu) while the deceased who was then living with PW3, as a motor conductor also in the latter’s employ, were sent on a journey together by him.

That the appellant and the deceased, both employees of PW3, were the driver and conductor respectively of lorry registration number AN 8850 B. That on 13/1/85 they travelled out in the said lorry but did not return on that day as usual; that rather, another driver in the employ of PW3 by name Patrick Mbang (PW4), drove back the lorry on 17/1/85 with PW3. That appellant informed PW4 that he (appellant) would go to eat at a place near Spera in Deo Petrol Filling Station, Abakaliki and thereafter visit his brother in town on 18/1/85, with nothing being heard about the deceased. This then led PW3 to lodge a report of the missing person at Abakaliki Police Station on 18/1/85, subsequent to which the appellant was on 29/3/85 arrested in his hometown Nimo.

PW2 (Mrs Roseline Enekwechi) later saw the corpse of the deceased somewhere along Abakaliki – Ogoja Road and identified it to PW 1 on 11/7/85 before it was buried at Enugu cemetery.

PW6 then described how he saw and removed a corpse lying at the River bank on 27/2/85 at Abakpa Nike, which he buried the same day at Enugu cemetery. A body was thereafter exhumed at the Enugu cemetery on 11/7/85 and the same was identified by PW2 (mother of the deceased) to PW1 (medical officer) who performed the post mortem examination.

At the close of the case for the prosecution, the appellant made and relied solely on circumstantial evidence. The trial court however found the appellant guilty of murder and sentenced him to death by hanging. Wherefore, he (appellant) appealed to the court below which in its considered judgment affirmed the judgment of the trial court in its entirety following which he appealed to this apex court on two grounds of appeal as appearing in the notice of appeal at pages 183 – 184 of the record of appeal.

The lone issue formulated on behalf of the appellant for our consideration reads:

(i) In view of the evidence as contained in the record of appeal, was the Court of Appeal justified in holding that the charge of murder against the appellant was proved beyond reasonable doubt

The lone issue submitted as arising on behalf of the respondent on the other hand goes thus:

Whether the Court of Appeal was right in confirming the conviction of the appellant for murder having regard to the evidence before the court.