Udo Akpan V. The State (1972)

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UDO UDOMA, J.S.C

 The appellant, Udo Akpan alias Udo Nwa Mfong, was convicted of the murder of his wife, Ime Udo Akpan by Allswell-Uranta, Acting Judge, (as he then was), in the Ikot – Ekpene Judicial Division of the High Court of the South – Eastern State. He was sentenced to death. He appealed to this court against his conviction.

The case of the prosecution which was accepted by the learned trial Judge was that until her death and at all times material to this case, Ime Udo Akpan, later deceased, was the wife of the appellant and the mother of a child still being breast-fed. She was living with the appellant. On 13th January, 1969, she went with her child to Ikpe village to join her relations in mourning the loss of her aunt by death. She did not tell the appellant when she left for Ikpe village.

Subsequently on enquiry, Monday Ezekiel, (P.W.1), the brother of Ime Udo Akpan informed the appellant that Ime Udo Akpan was away with her child to Ikpe village in connection with the death of her aunt. The appellant was angry. He felt that Ime Udo Akpan should not have gone to Ikpe village without informing him. He himself immediately  travelled to Ikpe village, seized the breast-fed child from Ime Udo Akpan and returned home leaving Ime Udo Akpan in the village.

Later Ime Udo Akpan returned to join the appellant who, on seeing her, immediately attacked and beat her up and dragged her on the ground to a spot where there was a cluster of plantain trees. He continued to beat her there. She raised an alarm. Monday Ezekiel, (P.W.1), came to the scene but when however, he attempted to intervene and to prevent the appellant from continuing to beat Ime Udo Akpan, the appellant threatened to beat him too. This caused Monday Ezekiel, (P. W.1) to raise an alarm, which attracted Alexander Akpan, (P.W.2) and Sunday Akpan, (P.W.3) to the scene, both of whom on’ arrival intervened and successfully prevented the appellant from continuing to beat Ime Udo Akpan. They caught hold of him and dragged him away from the scene, took him to his house, warned him against his conduct and extracted assurance from him that he would not beat his wife again. They both then left.

In the meantime on the advice of Monday Ezekiel, (P.W.1) and to avoid being further beaten up, Ime Udo Akpan ran away and took refuge under a pear tree in a lane. Shortly thereafter, Monday Ezekiel, (P.W.1), who was also sitting under the pear tree with Ime Udo Akpan, saw the appellant suddenly emerge from the bush nearby and pounce on Ime Udo Akpan. Monday Ezekiel, (P.W.1) raised an alarm. As a result, Alexander Akpan, (P.W.2) and Sunday Akpan, (P.W.3) rushed to the scene. They joined Monday Ezekiel, (P.W.l) there. They arrived in time to witness the appellant lift up Ime Udo Akpan, carry her shoulder high and throw her down on the ground in such a way that her head hit the ground first. Ime Udo Akpan (deceased) perforce discharged urine and faeces and passed away. She died there and then on the spot.

The appellant was arrested by a group of persons known as border defenders, and the matter was reported to the Military Police, who took over the appellant from the border defenders, at the same time ordering that the corpse of the deceased be buried. The corpse of the deceased was accordingly buried, there being no medical doctor available at the time to perform any post mortem examination.

On 21st February, 1969, the appellant made a statement to the Police wherein he denied the charge of murder. He said that the deceased had died a natural death in consequence of an illness.

As the incident took place within the area which was then declared a war zone, apart from the detention in custody of the appellant, nothing apparently was done about the case until 20th July, 1969, when the appellant was formally arrested, charged and cautioned by Corporal Michael Jeremiah (P.WA) of the Ikot-Ekpene Provincial C.I.D. The appellant volunteered another statement wherein he also denied the charge of murder. Later an exhumation which was conducted under the supervision of the Police only yielded the skull and the bones of the deceased.

In his defence at the trial, the appellant denied the charge of murder. He maintained that the death of the deceased was due to natural causes.

In his judgment the learned trial Judge considered the whole of the evidence in the case. He, rejected the evidence of the appellant, accepted that of the witnesses for the prosecution, and found that Ime Udo Akpan (deceased) died a death of violence as a direct result of the appellant’s action in carrying her shoulder high and throwing her violently on the ground.

He accepted the evidence that Ime Udo Akpan died on the spot, held, quite rightly in our view that the absence of medical evidence as to the cause of death was not fatal to the case of the prosecution in view of the eye-witnesses’ account as to how the deceased came by her death.

The learned trial Judge also gave consideration to the possible defence of provocation and rejected the same as irrelevant.

On 22nd March, 1972, when the appeal came up for hearing, Mr. Akinrele, Counsel for the appellant, intimated that he had nothing to urge in favour of the appellant. On a very careful scrutiny of the proceedings and judgment in the case we were left in no doubt that the appellant was rightly convicted of the offence of murder as, in our view, there was abundance of evidence to support the conviction. We therefore dismissed the appeal.

SC.351/1971