Amos Akpan Udo Ukut Vs The State (1972)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

FATAYI-WILLIAMS, J.S.C. 

In Charge No. H1/40C/71, the appellant was convicted in the High Court, Ikot Ekpene, on the 21st March, 1972, of the murder of his Uncle, Dick Ukut, and sentenced to death by Ita, J.

The case for the prosecution is that the appellant and his brother Okon Akpan Udo Ukut (2nd D.W.) had a dispute over a piece of land with Dick Ukut (the deceased) and the deceased’s brother, Noah Ukut (4th P.W). The deceased had planted oil palm trees on some portion of the land and cassava on another portion. The appellant and his brother went and destroyed some of the oil palm trees and uprooted the cassava trees. Annoyed with what they had done to his trees and crops, the deceased lodged a complaint in the Customary Court at Ikot Udo Afaha Obo against the appellant and his brother. The appellant’s brother (2nd D.W) was duly arrested and brought before the Customary Court. As the appellant was then away to Port Harcourt to sell palm oil, he could not be apprehended at the same time. The 2nd D.W. was, therefore, asked to report at the Customary Court on the 15th March, 1971; he was also instructed to inform the appellant of the date of hearing of the complaint and to ask him to appear before the Customary Court.
The appellant returned to Ikot Udo Afaha Obo on Saturday, 13th March, 1971. On the following day, 14th March, 1971, at about 5.30 a.m., the 2nd D.W. left the house in which he was staying with the appellant to return the bags of some persons who had sold crayfish to him. The appellant was in the house when the 2nd D.W. left home that morning but when he (2nd D.W.) returned later to their house at about 9 a.m., the appellant was no longer there. On making enquiries as to the whereabouts of the appellant, the 2nd D.W. was informed of his brother’s arrest in connection with the death of the deceased.

Helen Dick Ukot (2nd P.W.), a teacher at the Government School, Afaha Obo, and one of the five wives of the deceased described what happened to her husband at their house in Ikot Udo Afaha Obo at about 6 a.m., on that fateful Sunday (14th March, 1971) as follows:-

“Then my husband asked his other wife to keep water for him because he wanted to go out very early. The woman kept the water in the pantry and came and called my husband to go and wash his face. My husband went into the house to wash his face. Not long after I heard him shouting ‘Helen! Helen! Okoro has killed me, Okoro is the accused person. Accused’s other name is Okoro.  When I heard the shout I ran into the pantry where my husband was.  Accused was cutting my husband with a matchet and as he was cutting he said to my husband,

‘stand up and struggle over land with me, I did not commit adultery with your wife but you said I did so.’

When I saw this I raised an alarm and the accused pursued me with the matchet in his hand and I ran away…… I called my husband’s other wife by name Eka Nse, i.e., Nse’s mother. Eka Nse came and we both went into the house again and accused pursued us and we ran out of the house and shouted. Eka Nse’s name is Dora. When we went outside and shouted, people came but by this time the accused had run away. After the accused had gone I went and saw my husband. By this time he was dead.”

The 2nd P.W. saw matchet cuts on the deceased’s shoulder and on the lower part of his neck. There were also cuts from the nose to the mouth, in the palm of his hand, and on his head. According to the 2nd P.W. the distance from the house of the deceased to that of the appellant and the 2nd D.W. is about 70 yards.

Dora Dick Ukut (3rd P.W.) another wife of the deceased who was called to the scene by the 2nd P.W. confirmed the version of the incident as given by the 2nd P.W.

The shouting of the 2nd and 3rd P.W.s brought Noah Ukut (4th P.W.) the brother of the deceased to the scene. There he saw the dead body of his brother with matchet cuts on the “head, shoulder, neck, arm, hand and on the body.” He duly made a report to the police at the Ikot Okoro Police Station. As the policemen detailed to investigate the complaint were on their way to Ikot Udo Afaha Obo with the 4th P.W., they saw the accused and arrested him. Thereafter, the police collected the body of the deceased and took it to the Ikot Okoro General Hospital where the Medical Superintendent-in-charge performed a post mortem examination on the body on 15th March, 1971. The doctor described some of the injuries which he found as follows:-

“There was a very, very deep and large cut on the left shoulder close to the root of the neck. There were four moderately deep cuts on the left-shoulder, two on the left elbow anteriorly over the lower end of the humerous. There were several cuts on the right hand distributed as follows: two on the dorsum, i.e., back of the hand, three across the palm and one each on the left index middle and ring fingers. There was a superficial cut on the left side of the abdomen. No rib was fractured. On the face the zygomatic arch, i.e., (the bone between the eye and the mouth) was cut through. There were three cuts on the left eyebrow fracturing the left aspect of the frontal bone. There was also an associated fracture of the left temporofrontal bone, i.e., the bone in front of the ear as indicated by the witness.

The skull: There was a large cut on the bregma, i.e. (the very tip of the skull shown by Dr.) producing a T shaped fracture of the skull. There were four cuts on the nose mutilating the nose completely.”

According to the doctor, the cause of death was the head injury together with the bleeding from the many wounds enumerated above “many of which could have been capable of producing fatal haemorrhage.”

In the written statement (Ex. 5) which he made to the police soon after his arrest, the appellant admitted attacking the deceased with his matchet on the day in question. In this statement, he gave his reasons for the savage attack as follows:-