Alhaji Salisu Babuga Vs The State (1996)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

BELGORE, JSC. 

At the Kano High Court, the appellant was tried and convicted of culpable homicide punishable by death under section 221 of the Penal Code Law. The victim of the offence (hereinafter referred to as “the deceased”) Mamuda Gambo, was a neighbour of the appellant and P.W.1, Haruna Mohammed at Fagge, Kano.

The prosecution’s case at the trial Court is that on 13th October, 1989, along Hadejia Road, Kano at a beer parlour of a place called Lilly White Hotel, the P.W. 1 and the deceased were having some drinks and after a while the appellant, Alhaji Salisu Babuga came in and greeted them followed by his buying more drinks for them. Later, the appellant invited P.W. 1 and the deceased for a trip to Bagauda Lake Hotel on a “picknic”, which the two seemed to have enthusiastically accepted. This was after the two had some beer to drink at Lilly White Hotel. The appellant, the P.W. 1 and the deceased entered into the appellant’s car, driven by the appellant himself. The car is of Peugeot 505 Saloon make, in white paint and the three headed southwards out of Kano to Bagauda Dam.

A few kilometres to Bagauda Dam, the appellant stopped and said he would like to ease himself, his two companions, i.e. P.W. 1 and the deceased, also came out and walked a little in front of the car to urinate. As they squatted to do this, the appellant suddenly entered the car and put it into gear whereby it accelerated towards the deceased and P.W.1. The deceased was not fast enough to escape as the car knocked him down and went over him while P.W.1 ran out of the way. After running over the deceased, the appellant halted and put the car into reverse gear whereby it ran over the deceased a second time. The appellant dragged the body of the deceased into the car and then pursued the P.W. 1. He caught up with the P.W. 1 held him and dragged him back to the car all along with threat of dire consequences.

The seats inside the car were smeared with the deceased’s blood; so also were the dresses worn by the appellant and the P.W. 1.

With the corpse of the deceased on the front seat and the P.W. 1 on the back seat, the appellant reversed and accelerated towards the Kano-Zaria highway. Getting to the junction of Bagauda and Kano-Zaria highway, the appellant never turned northwards to Kano but southwards along the highway going to Zaria. On getting to a place near the village of Kasuwar Dogo, the appellant stopped, dragged out the corpse of the deceased and threw it into a pond made out of an excavated ground. After doing this the appellant ordered P.W. 1 to come to the front seat and he had to sit on the blood of the deceased and they drove back to Kano. The appellant, all along the way warned P.W. 1 not to reveal the incident to anybody, otherwise he would have to deal with him too. At Fogge, Kano, the appellant drove straight to the garage of his house and through it took the P.W. 1 into his house. How the P.W.1 was taken to the appellant’s house is graphically explained in the P.W.1’s evidence thus:-

“The accused told me that I should not tell what happened to anybody even my own brother. He threatened to kill me physically himself or through the native medicine men. When we reached the accused person’s house at Faggae, the accused opened his garage and parked the car. He then opened the door to his house through the garage. The accused compelled me to follow him to his house for when I asked him to drop me on the way, the accused refused. I followed the accused to his house at Fagge. I agreed to follow the accused to his house for I was afraid for the accused had threatened to kill me. When I went into the accused person’s house, he locked me in the house and went out. The accused then came back carrying some clothes with him. The clothes which I was wearing had been stained with blood and so the accused gave me a shirt to change the shirt.

The accused asked me to wash my pair of trousers which had been stained at the bottom part. I washed the trousers in the tap at the centre of the house. It was the blood of the deceased that stained my clothes when I sat on the front seat. When I finished changing my clothes, the accused person refused me to go. He said that he would only allow me to go home after people had gone to bed. When most people had gone to bed the accused allowed me to go home at about 12 midnight. When I went home, I could not sleep and I wanted to get some sleeping tablets but I could not for it was already late in the night.”

So the P.W. 1 was a virtual prisoner with the appellant on the day of the incident up to sometime late into the night when he was released to go home. He could not sleep with the tragedy fresh in his mind. In the morning, he summoned courage and went to the appellant’s father, the D.W. 2, Alhaji Umaru Babuga and told him of the incident whereby the deceased was killed by the appellant. He also told him of the threat of the appellant that he would kill him. In the evening the appellant went to the P.W. 1 and told him that D.W. 1 and his mother (appellant’s mother) wanted to see him; the P.W.1 never honoured the invitation.

Three days after the gory killing, the appellant confronted the P.W.1 again, accusing him of having reported the incident to his father (D.W.2) and that D.W. 2 was very angry with him. He there and then advised that P.W. 1 should leave for foreign land, that he would foot the bill of his journey and sojourn. He obtained a passport for the P.W. 1, though in his elder brother’s name but with his (P.W.1’s) real photograph in it. The passport was exhibited at the trial. The appellant also got three documents signed by the P.W. 1 that he lent to P.W. 1 the sum of N 10,000.00 “which he will use against the P.W. 1.” The P.W.1 was at the material period a student at College of Education, Kumbotso but the appellant had suggested to him the possibility of a transfer to Gumel Advanced Teachers’ College.

Thereafter, P.W.1 became restless and started all ploys to evade meeting with the appellant. The opportunity to be away from the appellant was offered when the P.W. 1 was to go on teaching practice; he left Kano area for Danbatta. The P.W. 1 then narrated his situation thereafter thus:

“I chose to do my teaching practice at Government Girls Secondary School Danbatta and that was where I did my teaching practice. That period was the only peace I ever had when we came back from the teaching practice, I was a bit O.K. because the accused was not disturbing me at that time. I then started to nurse some feelings of fear that anything could happen to me. I started avoiding keeping companies. One day, I was with some people when the accused came to look for me. He was directed to one house where he was told that I was playing draught. The accused met me and told me that he was suspecting that I would reveal the secret anytime from then. I told him that I would not reveal the secret. He said that he did not trust me and so told me that if I wanted him to believe me, I should write another letter stating that I needed another loan of N10,000.00. I wrote the 3rd letter and gave to the accused person. I did not get the money from the accused.

I was afraid and so that is why I was complying with the accused person’s orders of writing letters to him as he asked me to do. Accused used to call some mallams. After all these I started to feel disturbed and so my elder brother realized that I was not all well – that things were not well with me. I began to have nightmares in my sleep. I started dreaming of having been charged with murder before a court. Sometimes I found myself in prison in the dream. When my elder brother realized that I was being disturbed, he asked me to tell him what happened. I then told my elder brother what happened. My elder brother said that we should report the matter to the police. I told him that we should not report the matter to the police because the family of the accused would kill me if we reported the matter to the police, my elder brother asked me to meet him in his place of work on the 8th of June, 1990.

I went to my elder brother’s place of work on 8/6/90 as he asked me to do. When I went to my elder brother’s working place, we went to the State C.I.D. and made a report of the incident. When I told the police what happened they said that they had a similar case filed with them.”