Obalum Anekwe V. The State (1976)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

MADARIKAN, JSC 

In the High Court of the former East Central State sitting at Onitsha, the accused was convicted on 26th July, 1975, of the murder of one Nwagwu Oguejiofor and sentenced to death.  The only eyewitness account as to how the deceased died was given by one Joseph Udemadu (2nd P.W.), a wood-cutter.

This witness had earlier made a written statement to the police on 16th September, 1974, that is, about five weeks after the death of the deceased on 11th August, 1974.   The statement reads –

“I am a wood cutter, I was staying at Anoku near Forest Reserve Aguleri Otu. On a certain day in the afternoon I was paddling my canoe on the Anambra river when I heard a cry which stated: I am killed, Obalum has killed me. I saw a river road which went into a farm owned by one Okechukwu, as I was going further, I saw the said Obalum coming out from that direction, I went and I asked him, Obalum, who was crying? He said that he did not know, he was also on his own canoe, as Obalum passed me, I went to the direction where the cry came from and I saw an aged woman lying faced down on the shallow of a water.

She had a matchet cut behind her head. I went back and to Okechukwu’s house, I did not see Okechukwu but his son who told me that he did not know where his father Okechukwu went. I went back and repeated to Okechukwu’s house in the evening, there I saw his wife called Agbanma who told me that Okechukwu had carried the dead body of his mother to Otu-ocha.

I did not tell the woman anything, I went back. When Okechukwu returned from Otu-ocha, I told him how I saw Obalum. Okechukwu told me that Obalum was a thief, and that it was through police questioning, Obalum was shown to police and police invited him for questioning and on the way to the police station, the man Obalum ran away. I then told Okechukwu that since the man Obalum had run, I would volunteer myself to follow police to search for him. I did follow police to search for Obalum. Police paid for my transport to and from Mid-Western State of Nigeria. There and then Obalum was arrested at a place called Ebu and was brought to Otu-ocha police station. I know Obalum before because he lived where I used to stay when I went for cutting firewood. I did not tell any other person about the incident only Okechukwu. It was Okechukwu who told the rest of his brothers about the incident. In the evening of that day, I went to Obalum’s house at Anoku but I did not see any- body in his house.”

As against this written statement, the evidence of the 2nd P/W on oath about the same incident reads as follows:-

“On 11th day of August, 1974, as I was in my canoe going to where I was cutting wood about morning time, I heard wailing voice shouting ‘Obalum egbumuo’- three times meaning that Obalum has killed me and I recognised the wailing voice and it was the voice of the deceased woman. On hearing the wailing voice , I turned back my canoe and made towards the direction of the wailing voice and there I saw accused in his own canoe coming from the direction of the wailing voice. I then asked the accused who was shouting out his  name that he has killed that person. I asked accused if he heard the wailing voice and he said that I should not ask him and that he heard nothing.

I then left accused and paddled my canoe to the actual spot of the wailing voice. On reaching there, I saw the body of a woman at about ten yards away from my canoe. On coming closer, I recognised that the body on muddy water was that of the deceased who herself was the owner of that farm. She was then already dead. I discovered that she was lying in pool of blood and blood was gushing from her neck. She was lying face downwards. I got frightened and ran away to the house of P.W.1. P.W.1 was not at home but I saw his wife, who told me that P.W.1 had gone to Oma-Agu and I went away. I told her that I would return the next day. The next day when I went back I did not see P.W.1, but the wife told me that P.W.1’s mother had been killed and her dead body taken to Aguleri.

About a week afterwards I saw P.W.1 and I told him what I discovered about death of his mother. After narrating to P.W.1 what I learnt he told me that he saw and caught accused at Otu-Ocha but he later escaped. I assisted in looking for the accused. I was with two police constables and we searched for him in many places and we later got accused at Ebu in the Mid-West. There, police arrested accused. It took us about a week to find accused. From where I first saw accused in his canoe coming from where I saw body of deceased woman would be about 50 yards”. (The underlining is ours).

In his answers to questions asked under cross-examination, the 2nd P.W. admitted that he did not go back to the accused after seeing the dead body of the woman and confront him with what he had seen because he was afraid that the accused might attack him. He also admitted that he did not report the incident to the person in charge of their camp in the Forest Reserve. He said he went to look for the 1st P.W. the son of the deceased but as he did not show up so he left. He said he reported what he saw to the 1st P.W. in his house later. He admitted making a written statement to the police about the incident but when he was asked about the date of this statement he replied:

“But I don’t know the date of statement. I made my statement to police before I went with them in search of accused”.

This is obviously a lie because the statement was made on 16th September, 1974, that is, after the accused had been arrested and remanded in custody.    Okechukwu Oguejiofor (1st P.W.) also testified for the prosecution about how he knew of his mother’s death. This is what he said. On the day of the incident, that is, 11th August, 1974, he went to Ona Agwu. On his return, he discovered that his mother was not at home. As a result of what he was told on enquiry about her whereabouts, he returned to Ona Agwu to look for her. Later, he saw her in his farm at Ubi on their boundary with the Forest Reserve, lying on the ground in muddy water, face downwards. On wading into the muddy water to where she was, he discovered that she had two matchet cuts which nearly severed the neck from the rest of her body. She was dead. He raised an alarm as he was returning to their village. Later, he reported the incident to the Forest Guard in the Forest Reserve who  advised him to remove the body to their village and to report the death to the chairman of their Communtiy Council which he did.

The Forest Guard also informed him that he would not allow any of his workers in the Forest Reserve to leave their place of work in the forest. But as the Forest Guard was not called by the prosecution, there was no evidence to show whether the accused was one of his workers or not. Later, a report of the incident was made to the police at the Otu-Ocha Police Station. When cross-examined about what he saw at the place where he found his mother, the 1st P.W. replied:   “I discovered signs of struggle and I also saw yams uprooted and scattered around the scene. When I raised alarm crying, no one came in response to my alarm. On getting home, I reported the incident to waiting members of my family. No one gave me any hint on that day of incident about who killed my mother”. (The underlining is ours).    Later, on information received, presumably in the course of their investigation and, pursuant to an earlier report made by the 1st P.W. at the Otu-Ocha Police Station on 13th August, 1974, some policemen went to look for the accused. After some fruitless efforts, he was arrested by P.C. Moses Eruari (4th P.W.) at Ebu in the Bendel State on 15th September 1974. He was brought back to Otu-Ocha on the following day and charged with the murder of the deceased. As we have pointed out earlier, it was after this that the 2nd P.W. made his written statement to the police.

Sergeant Edmund Okosa (3rd P.W.), one of the policemen, who went to look for the accused, following the report of 13th August, 1974, said he apprehended the accused earlier in the course of their investigation, (although he did not state the date on which he was apprehended) but that the accused escaped from them and ran into the bush. When he was cross-examined about this, he explained what actually happened as follows:   “On the day we went to camp only accused was absent and I collected many camp settlers to police station at Otu-Ocha in the course of my investigation. Nobody mentioned name of accused to me in connection with death of deceased.

I don’t remember seeing P.W.2 at Enugu-Otu camp on the day I visited there I was in mufty when I saw accused with some people listening to radio. Accused cooperated with me at that time. When I first arrested accused I did not tell him what offence he committed”. (The underlining is ours).    In his defence on oath, the accused denied killing the deceased. He also denied knowing the 2nd P.W. and said that he only got to know him for the first time when he came to where he was working at Ebu with some policemen.

He denied seeing the 2nd P.W. on the day of the incident along the stream close to where the deceased was attacked. He told the  court that when the wife of another son of the deceased died some time before the incident, there was speculation in the village that it was the deceased who killed her by means of witchcraft. In answer to questions asked about his escape when the police first tried to arrest him, he replied:   “The police P.W.3 who arrested me first at Ameze was i

Other Citation: (1976) LCN/2226(SC)