Aliyu V. State (2021)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

EJEMBI EKO, J.S.C.

The charge defended by the Appellant alleges:

That you NURA ALIYU of No. 110, Zamfarawa Road, Funtua, Funtua Local Government Area of Katsina State on or about the 11th day of August, 2006 around 08.00 hrs at Government Girls Secondary School Funtua in Funtua Local Government within the Funtua Judicial Division committed the offence of culpable homicide punishable with death by doing an act to wit: stabbing one Jamilu Yahaya with a knife on the head and stomach with knowledge that such is likely to cause death and it it did cause his death and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 221 of the Penal Code.

The charge was accompanied with the Proofs of Evidence.

In the course of the trial, the prosecution, through the PW. 1, tendered in evidence, the confession of the Appellant, as the accused person, contained in Exhibits A and A1. The Appellant was represented by Counsel. The Counsel, after conferring with the Accused/Appellant, did not oppose or object to the confessional statement being admitted in evidence against the Defendant. Thus, the making and the voluntariness of the making of Exhibits A & A1, were seemingly no longer in issue. Exhibit A is the Hausa version of the statement; while Exhibit A1 was the English version.

However at page 32, upon the statement read to the Defendant in open Court the Appellant, as the Defendant, retorted, by way of correction;

That is not the correct statement I made. I actually used my shovel and not knife on the victim.

The voluntariness of the making of the confession, subject to the correction made by the Defendant, was at the trial Court, not in issue. Even when that was not an issue; the PW.2 at page 33 of the records was on hand to corroborate the PW.1 as to the voluntariness of the making of the confession in Exhibits A & A1.

He was not cross-examined on this aspect of his evidence. Facts not disputed and/or challenged are always taken as admitted and established.

However, in amazing desperation as it appears, the Appellant’s Counsel in paragraph 21 of the Appellant’s Brief submitted that –

In spite of unequivocal challenge on (sic) the confessional statement by the Appellant, the trial Court held that the denial amounted to a corroborative evidence of the confessional statement, and that the “corroborated confessional statement” together with the testimonies of the PW.1 and PW.4 are sufficient proof that the Appellant caused the death of the deceased. The lower Court also chose to align with the reasoning of the trial Court, by taking the view that there was no legitimate challenge to the confessional statement, and accordingly, the trial Court had no cause to seek corroborative evidence before relying on the confessional statement in convicting the accused person.

The lingua franca of the two Courts below is English Language.

Page 32 of the records is the proceeding of the trial Court written in simple laconic English that would not take a final year pupil of a Primary School preparing for his Common Entrance to comprehend. Here is a lawyer, before us at the Supreme Court appearing not to understand very simple English Language. And it is not to his credit to insist that he has come before us merely to confuse issues and thus, pander to the beer parlour gossip or glib that the lawyer is he who turns black into white and vice versa. This common man’s impression of the lawyer, though false, should of course be scandalous of us all lawyers!!

The Appellant’s lawyer is, like every lawyer, an officer of the Court enjoined not to do any act or conduct himself in any manner that will adversely affect the administration of justice. A deliberately mischievous distortion of facts, no doubt, is a conduct unbecoming which is not only capable of adversely affecting the administration of justice, but does actually affect the administration of justice. Every lawyer appearing in his professional capacity before a Court shall deal with the Court mostly candidly and fairly. Rules 30 and 32 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, 2007 should, and indeed, offer very basic precept to every lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar and enrolled in the Supreme Court after Law School. It is not palatable to call an officer of this Court a liar, as I am tempted to call the Appellant’s Counsel.