T.A. Abioye & Ors V. The State (1986)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

EPHRAIM OMOROSE IBUKUN AKPATA, J.C.A.

What is conspiracy? Does it require direct evidence to establish it? Can an accused person acquitted of committing the substantive offence be convicted of conspiracy? Can it be inferred from the failure of a bank official to detect a number of forged cheques that he conspired with others to commit forgery and theft” These are the questions which have surfaced in this appeal.

Between November 1979 and February 1980 Olusola Adedeji, the 3rd appellant, was the Accountant of the Societe Generale Bank Nigeria Ltd. Ilorin. The 2nd appellant, Lawrence Adeniranye, who did not prosecute his appeal was a clerk in the Bank having custody of the Bank’s cheque between November 1979 and May 1980. The 1st appellant, Timothy Abioye, was the Computer Room Supervisor of the Bank and his duty was to verify all signatures on cheques presented by customers he being in charge of specimen signature cards.

Sometime in April or May 1980 it was discovered that some cheque leaves which were forged had been encashed and debited against the accounts of Kwara State Government and Ilorin Local Government. As a result of investigations carried out charges were preferred against the three appellants at the High Court of Justice Ilorin to the following effect:

(1) Conspiring to do an illegal act and removing from the Bank’s

Computer Room signature cards of the Kwara State Government and Ilorin Local Government Authority, thus facilitating the forgery of the signatures of the signatories to the cheques of to the State Government and the Local Government and the stealing of total sum of N375,180.30 and N178,851.28 belonging to the State Government and the Local Government respectively, punishable under Section 97 of the Penal Code.

(2) That the 3rd appellant abetted the commission of the offence of forgery by making available to some persons the said signature cards from which the Specimen signatures were forged, punishable under Section 85 of the Penal Code.

(3) Stealing the sum of N375,180.30 and N178,851 the properties of the State Government and the Local Government respectively, punishable under Section 286 of the penal Code.

The three accused persons were discharged and acquitted in respect of charge 3. The 3rd accused was also discharged in respect of charge 2. All the accused persons were found guilty of the first charge and each was sentenced to a term of three years imprisonment. The three accused persons filed notices of appeal, and as I have pointed out the 2nd accused did not prosecute his appeal before us.

Before dealing with the substance of the Appeal, it is necessary to give a synopsis of the facts of the case adduced before the learned trial Judge Oyeyipo, J. (now the Chief Judge of Kwara State). Going by the case for the prosecution, the 1st accused, the Computer Room Supervisor, was on leave between November to December 1979. PW3, Idowu Morakinyo, took over from him. On a certain day when PW3 was in-charge of the Computer Room, the 3rd accused, the Accountant, whose duty did not involve doing anything in the Computer Room, walked into the room and removed unspecified number of signature cards from the room and proceeded to produce photo-copies from them in another Section of the Bank. While taking the signature cards away he refused to let PW3 look at them when he requested him to show them to him.

PW3 drew the attention of PW2, Ganiyu Azeez, and PW12. Najeem Jimoh, who were also on duty in the Computer Room to what the 3rd accused had done. PW3 later saw some photo-copies of the signature cards on the table of the 3rd accused on that day. Testifying on the same issue PW2 claimed that “as a result of the report. I went to the table of the 3rd accused to confirm whether he (3rd accused) in fact took some signature cards from the Computer Room. On the 3rd accused’s table I saw two photo-copies of signature cards. I reported what I saw to Mr. Morakinyo. Mr. Morakinyo and I checked the Bank’s Ledger cards and we discovered that the Ledger cards had amount of N10 – N32 debit. As the amount discovered in the ledger card were minimal, I did nothing further about the matter”.

Not long after the 3rd accused had removed and photostated some signature-cards, certain cheques in custody of the 2nd accused found their way to certain person or persons who forged the Signatures of the respective signatories to the accounts of the State Government and the Local Government on six cheques and withdrew a total amount of N375,180.30 from the account of the State Government and N178,851.28 from the account of the Local Government. Before these cheques were encashed they were verified and approved for payment by the 1st accused who had returned from leave.

It is necessary to state at this stage that the procedure was for the 1st accused to refer cheques above his limit to the Manager, Michael Neaves, PW13, after verification for his approval. The 1st accused would refer such a cheque either to the Accountant (the 3rd accused) or to Alhaji Yusuf Salihu, PW11 the Loans officer. The 1st accused in fact referred the cheques Exhibits 4 to 8 to PW 11 and he authorised payment.

In February, 1980 the 3rd accused resigned his appointment with the Bank following his refusal to go on transfer to Lagos.