Adeyinka Albert Laoye V. The State (1985)

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NNAMANI, J.S.C. 

This is indeed a most tragic case. The deceased, Stephen Afere, appellant and 1st prosecution witness, Akintokunde Akindahunsi were all students of the University of Ife, IIe-Ife. They were also friends. On the 15th March, 1982 at about 6.30p.m. the appellant and the deceased, Stephen Afere, went to a house at Ondo Road, Modakeke to collect a book from one Alaba. Incidentally, Alaba lived in the same house as the 1st prosecution witness. As Alaba was not in, and as the book could not be found, the 3 of them i.e. appellant, deceased and Akindahunsi walked back to the campus of the University.

According to the first prosecution witness, he walked slightly ahead of the other two. Then at a point he realised that they were having an argument. When he turned back the two of them were having a scuffle. He moved nearer and found that the argument was over a girl-friend. As he appealed to their sense of reason, the appellant stabbed him on the palm. He bled badly and had to leave for the University junction. As he ran, he heard shouts from the direction of both of them, particularly shouts of pain from the deceased.

From this incident, the deceased Stephen Afere died and the appellant, Adeyinka Laoye, was arraigned before Apara, J. at the Ile Ife High Court charged with his murder. 8 witnesses testified for the prosecution while the appellant testified in his own defence and called no witness. On 22nd August, 1983 judgment was delivered and the appellant was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. It is pertinent at this stage to refer to the reasoning on which the learned trial judge finally arrived at his conclusion. He said –

“What happened from this stage on is of paramount importance. The accused admitted in court that he had a bigger stature physically than the deceased. The accused also admitted in court that he knew some karate. With this combination, if he brought out his own knife one could understand the situation if the accused had just stabbed the deceased’s shoulder once only and combined it with his karate knowledge to disarm the deceased.

The accused did not do this. According to the Doctor who performed the post mortem examination on the deceased, the deceased had five serious stab wounds which caused his death. As it was only the accused and the deceased who fought with knives, the only irresistible conclusion I have drawn is that it was the accused who inflicted the five serious wounds on the deceased, and it was these wounds that killed the deceased.

My conclusion here is that the defence offered by the accused was far in excess of the attack offered by the deceased. The long and short of this is that this incident started as a quarrel between the accused and the deceased and eventually resulted in a fight in which the accused used his knife freely our of proportion to the attack offered by the deceased. I say this because the accused had just one slight wound on his leg to show for the combat. No time intervened between the quarrel and the fight between the two of them. Therefore passions had not cooled off (Italics mine)

The appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal which in a majority judgment (Kutigi and Babalakin, J.J.C.A., with Ogundare, J.C.A. dissenting) delivered on 28th June, 1984 dismissed his appeal and affirmed the conviction and sentence passed on him by the High Court. The appellant has now appealed to this Court.

Originally, 4 grounds of appeal were filed. Subsequently, following leave granted by this Court on 30th September, 1985, 3 additional grounds were filed and argued. I do not propose to set down all 7 grounds of appeal which to my mind goes to the root of the question to be determined in this appeal- that question being, as formulated in the brief of the learned Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Oyo State, for the Respondent, “whether the evidence adduced by the appellant is sufficient to enable the Trial Court consider defence of self defence rather than provocation in favour of the appellant in which case the appellant ought to have been discharged and acquitted of the offence of murder”.

In the ground of appeal the appellant complained that

“The Lower Court erred in Law in dismissing the appellant’s appeal before it on the ground that the appellant did not establish the defence of self defence before the trial court.

Particulars of Error

(a) Reliance on first prosecution’s witness evidence which by and large is not reliable and which the trial judge did not believe, even when the same first prosecution witness admitted that both the appellant and the deceased were defending themselves with object he could not know

(b) Failure to consider the whole evidence before the trial judge which should not have led the lower court from reaching the conclusion that there was no sufficient evidence to support the plea of ‘self defence’ as raised by the accused when the evidence of the 4th P.W.; 8th P.W. -Jacob Awodiran; the Prisoner’s evidence on oath are very relevant.