Sansani V. State (2022)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

MARY UKAEGO PETER-ODILI, J.S.C. 

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division or lower Court or Court below, Coram: Adewale O. Abiru, Oladotun A. Adefope-Okojie and Amina Audi Wambai JJCA on the 26th day of February, 2016 dismissing the Appellant’s appeal and affirming the conviction and sentence of the Appellant and his co-accused person per G.I. Kurada J.

FACTS BRIEFLY STATED

The appellant as the 1st accused was arraigned alongside two other accused persons before the trial Court on the 4th day of November, 2008, charged with criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide punishable with Sections 97 and 221 of the Penal Code Law respectively, to which he pleaded not guilty.

The Respondent in its efforts to prove its case against the Appellant and the other accused persons, called five (5) witnesses who testified as PW1 to PW5, and it tendered in evidence several documents which were admitted in evidence, amongst which are the extra-judicial confessional statements of the Appellant which were admitted and marked as Exhibits 3, 3A and 5. It is worthy to note, that the confessional statements of the Appellant Exhibit 3, 3A and 5 were admitted in evidence through PW4 and PW5 without objection from the Appellant or his counsel.

The Appellant testified as DW1 in his defence and called no other witness. After the close of the respective parties’ cases, their counsel addressed the Court, and in a considered judgment, the learned trial Court found and held, that the Respondent had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the Appellant was guilty of the said offences of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide not punishable with death. It therefore convicted the Appellant of the said offences of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide not punishable with death and sentenced him to one (1) year imprisonment on Count 1 dealing with criminal conspiracy and five (5) years for the offences of culpable homicide not punishable with death, both sentences to run concurrently.

The Appellant being dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial Court, appealed against the same to the Court below via his Notice of Appeal dated and filed on the 17th day of May, 2011, containing ten (10) grounds of appeal.

​In accordance with the rules and practices of the Court below, the parties filed and exchanged their respective Briefs of Argument which they duly adopted at the hearing of the appeal on 26th January 2016.

The Court below dismissed the appeal and further dissatisfied Appellant has come before the Supreme Court upon a Notice of Appeal containing five (5) grounds.

On the 3/2/2022 date of hearing, learned counsel for the Appellant Paulyn O. Abhulimen Esq. adopted the further amended Appellant’s brief of argument filed on 16/6/2021 and deemed filed on 2/12/2021. In the brief, learned counsel raised two issues for determination, which are as follows:-

i. Whether there were sufficient, cogent and credible evidence of conspiracy and culpable homicide not punishable with death under Section 222(7) of the Penal Code law of Kaduna State which warranted a substitution of conviction for conspiracy and culpable homicide not punishable with death instead of an outright acquittal and discharge of the accused persons?’ (Grounds 1, 2, and 5)

ii. Whether the Court below was right when it affirmed the decision of the trial Court that the prosecution proved the offences preferred against the Appellant beyond reasonable doubt as required by law. (Grounds 3 & 4).

Learned counsel for the Respondent, Biola Oyebanji Esq adopted the amended Respondent’s brief of argument, filed on 25/11/2021 and deemed filed on 3/2/2022. In the brief was formulated a single issue, thus:

Whether or not from the totality of the facts and law, the lower Court was justified to have found the appellant culpable and thereby convicting him of a lesser offence than the one he was actually charged with (Distilled from all grounds of the Notice of Appeal)