Adelarin Lateef & Ors. V. The Federal Republic Of Nigeria (2010)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

STANLEY SHENKO ALAGOA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of Olatoregun J. of the Federal High Court, Abeokuta Ogun State delivered on the 13th March 2008 in Charge No. FHC/AB/9C/2007 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA V. ADELARIN LATEEF & 4 ORS in which the learned trial Judge convicted and sentenced the accused persons (now Appellants) on a two counts charge of conspiracy to commit felony and adulterating 77 bags of Dangote Cement with Sand with intent to sell same as genuine cement to the public. The charge at the lower court as contained at page 4 of the Record of Appeal reads as follows:

COUNT 1: That you Adelarin Lateef ‘f’, Rafia Raimi ‘f’, Segun Raji ‘m’, Tunde Lateef and Monsuru Adegbola ‘m’ on or about the 4th June 2006 at Kangudu Village Oke-Ode Obantoko Abeokuta within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did conspire to commit a felony to wit: adulteration of cement and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 10(6) and punishable under section 3(18)(a)(i) of the Special Tribunal (Miscellaneous Offences) Act Cap 410 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 as amended by the Tribunals (Certain Consequential Amendments etc) Act 1999.

COUNT II: That you Adelarin Lateef ‘f’, Rafia Raimi ‘f’, Segun Raji ‘m’, Tunde Lateef ‘m’ and Monsuru Adegbola ‘m’ on the said date, time and place within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court adulterated seventy-seven (77) bags of Dangote Cement with sand with intent to sell same as genuine cement to the public and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 3(18)(a)(i) of the Special Tribunal (Miscellaneous Offences) Act Cap 410 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 as amended by the Tribunals (Certain Consequential etc) Act 1999.”

Briefly, the prosecution’s case at the Federal High Court was that the Appellants who were accused persons were arrested at Kangudu Village, Obantoko, Abeokuta by villagers who alleged that the said accused were mixing sand with cement and loading the adulterated mixture into Dangote Cement bags purporting them to be genuine with a view to selling them to unsuspecting consumers. The accused denied the charge. The case went on to be tried with the prosecution calling five witnesses while each of the accused persons gave evidence on his or her behalf. A number of exhibits were tendered and admitted in court notably exhibits ‘A-E’ which are confessional statements of the Appellants after a trial within trial by the court, exhibits ‘F-F180’ which are empty new cement bags; exhibits ‘G-G10’ which are filters; exhibits ‘H-H3’ which are funnels; exhibits ‘J’ ‘K’ and ‘L’ which are a shovel, a bucket, and a small bowl respectively etc. At the end of the trial, both counsel for the prosecution and the defence addressed court, and the learned trial Judge in a considered judgment delivered on the 13th March, 2008 convicted all the accused persons on the two count charge and accordingly sentenced them as follows as contained at page 79 of the Record of Appeal:

“On the 1st count, each accused is hereby sentenced to 5 years IHL or a fine of N750,000.00 only.

On the 2nd count, each accused is sentenced to 5 years IHL or a fine of N750,000.00 only. The fines are cumulative, sentences are consecutive.”

It is against this conviction and sentence that the accused have appealed to this Court. The Appellants being out of time in filing their respective Notices of appeal brought applications to do so on the 22nd January, 2009. The said applications were granted with the Appellants granted 21 days to file their Notices of Appeal. Consequent upon the said grant the Appellants within time filed their respective Notices of appeal dated 20th January 2008 and filed on the 9th February 2009. These are all contained at pages 80-104 of the Record of Appeal. The Notices of Appeal which are identical contain five Grounds of Appeal which are reproduced below:

“GROUNDS OF APPEAL

GROUND ONE:

The learned trial Judge erred in law and in fact in holding that the prosecution proved its case against the appellant as charged and therefore convicted the 1st Appellant of the offence of conspiracy to commit felony to wit adulteration of cement and adulterating 77 bags of Dangote Cement with sand with intent to sell same as genuine cement to the public and sentenced him to five years imprisonment or N750,000.00 fine on each count with sentences to run consecutively and fines to be cumulative when the evidence adduced at the trial is insufficient to ground such conviction.

PARTICULARS:

(a) Section 138 of the Evidence Act provides that all ingredients of a crime must be proved beyond all reasonable doubt by the prosecution.

(b) PW3 in his evidence stated that the Exhibits were registered i.e. the 77 adulterated Cement, the 55 Original bags, the 65 bags of sand are now at State cm as they have turned to stone. Rain touched them.