Isa Mamman & Ors V. The State

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

A. R. Alexander, C.J.N.

The four above-named appellants were tried in the High Court of the former North-Western State holden at Sokoto before Uthman Mohammed, Acting Judge, on a charge of culpable homicide punishable with death under Section 221(b) of the Penal Code.

The particulars of the offence were that on or about the 10th day of June, 1973 in a farm at Wadaya Village of Gwadabawa District within the North-Western Judicial Division they committed culpable homicide punishable with death by causing the death of Alhaji Tudu by beating him with axes and sticks with the knowledge that his death would be the probable consequence of their acts.

The learned trial Judge found the 1st appellant Isa Mamman, the 3rd appellant Ahmadu Dan-Alu, and the 4th appellant Mamman Dan Mai-Karfi, guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death contrary to Section 221(b) of the Penal Code and convicted them accordingly and sentenced them to death. He further found the 2nd appellant Mamman Dan-Hashi guilty of abetment of culpable homicide punishable with death under Section 221(b) of the Penal Code and convicted him accordingly and sentenced him to death. Each of the four appellants appealed against his conviction and sentence.

It should be mentioned here that the 1st appellant was the 1st accused at the trial, the 2nd appellant was the 2nd accused, the 3rd appellant was the 4th accused and the 4th appellant the 5th accused. The 3rd accused was at the close of the trial convicted of the offence of hurt contrary to Section 246 of the Penal Code and sentenced to a prison term of six months. However, he did not appeal.

The evidence adduced by the prosecution at the trial was as follows. On Sunday the 10th day of June, 1973, the deceased Alhaji Tudu went in a vehicle with nine other persons to a farm near Wadaya Village. There was at the material time an outstanding dispute between the deceased Alhaji Tudu and the 2nd appellant, Mamman Dan-Hashi, over the farm. He reached the farm and met the appellants and others already on the farm planting seeds. The driver of the vehicle stopped it and Alhaji Tudu alighted. The 1st and 4th appellants, who are both sons of the 2nd appellant, got hold of Alhaji Tudu while the 3rd appellant who is the junior brother of the 2nd appellant, struck him on the head with an axe. The deceased fell down and died on the spot. The written report of the State Pathologist, Dr. Yacoub (who performed the post-mortem examination but was not called as a witness) was admitted in evidence under Section 249(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code as Exhibit D1. He found the following injuries-

(1)bleeding from the nose;

(2)bleeding from the mouth;

(3)bleeding from the right ear;

(4)depressed comminuted fracture of right side of occipital bone and right temporal bone;

(5)laceration of brain tissue together with laceration of scalp tissue.

He certified the cause of death and stated that in his opinion death was due to shock due to brain injury. The learned trial Judge thoroughly analysed such discrepancies as there were in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses and, quite rightly in our view, did not find any of them material.

The 1st appellant, Isa Mamman, did not testify on oath in his defence but in his written statement to the Police, Exhibit H2 he said that the deceased instructed his people to kill everybody on the farm, and that it was when one of the servants of the deceased by name Maidama struck at him with a stick that the stick mistakenly struck the deceased. The learned trial judge rightly, in our view, disbelieved this evidence and referred to it as a “frame-up”.

The 3rd appellant, Ahmadu Dan-Alu, also did not testify on oath in his defence, but in his written statement to the Police, Exhibit 2, he said that it was one Audu Wanzame who “cut” the deceased with the axe. His defence was also, in our view, rightly disbelieved by the learned trial Judge having regard to the overwhelming evidence that it was the 3rd appellant himself who struck the deceased a fatal blow with the pointed end of an axe.