Bodunrin Senu V. The State (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

MONICA BOLNA?AN DONGBAN-MENSEM, J.C.A.(Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal challenges the death sentence pronounced on the Appellant for causing the death of one Wasiu Hunsa in a fight.

The facts of the case before the trial Court are well conveyed in the testimony of the Appellant. Part of the said testimony which was made under oath on the 01/06/2010 is recorded at pages 16-18 of the records transmitted to this Court on the 07/04/2014. The Appellant’s testimony went thus:

?”….On the 6/8/07, I was in my workshop in Ajegunle at about 7.30am. I was cutting clothes. I suddenly saw Wasiu Hunsa, he came on a Motorcycle to my shop. He came to meet me where I was cutting clothes. I greeted him good morning. In answering, he said I should look up and down that that was my last day on earth. He then dipped his hand into his pocket and brought out two rings – one white, one black. He then inserted the rings into his fingers. I stepped back for him and was looking for ways to escape. Wasiu covered the entrance of the shop and prevented me from going out. He then moved close to me and slapped me with the rings and I

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fell down. I could not stand up and my tongue came out.

I know the father of Wasiu. He had testified in this case. He is an herbalist. As I fell down, and was still on the floor, the deceased pounced on me again. I struggled to free myself from him but I did not succeed. I had the scissors with me during the struggle. I use the scissors to cut clothes. When I could not free myself from the deceased, the scissors stabbed him. I used the scissors to free myself from the deceased. After that I stood up from the floor. I now say I did not stand up from the floor. I was taken to Celestial Church in Ilase where I was treated. Something was used for me there. Thereafter I don?t know what happened again (At page 17 of the record)

One Dr. M. R. O. Omotayo performed the postmortem examination on the corpse of the deceased but was not called to testify in Court. The case of the Prosecution was stated in this virgin form by one Ahmed Hunsa, the brother of the deceased. The incidence was reported to him by the wife of the Appellant. Ahmed Hunsa is a brother of the deceased. He testified as PW1. He was sworn on the Bible and his testimony is recorded at pages 9 ? 11 of the record. His

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account of the incidence is as follows:

“PW1: Sworn on the Bible and states in Yoruba. I am Hunsa Ahmed. I live at Ilase Isale Ode, Ajegunle, Idiroko border side. I am a painter. I know the accused person. I know Wasiu Hunsa. Wasiu Hunsa and the accused person are friends. Wasiu Hunsa is dead. Wasiu was my senior brother. I am 21 years old. On 6/8/2007 I was going to work at about 8.30a.m. Something happened that day. That morning I and my younger brother, Mulero, a tailor apprentice with the accused person, we were going to work. I carried Mulero on my bicycle to drop him off at his place of work first before going to my place of work. Shortly before we got to Mulero, shop, we were stopped by the accused person?s wife who was shouting Mulero, Mulero, Oga e ti gun egbon e o, (Mulero, Mulero, your boss had stabbed your brother). Mulero wanted to get down from the bicycle, I urge him not to, that we should go and see our brother that was stabbed. On getting to the accused person?s shop, we saw Wasiu Hunsa. He called me that the accused had stabbed him and that I should come and take him to the hospital. I saw the deceased with blood all over

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him. I also saw a scissors with a broken tip on the floor; I asked the deceased to get up. He told me he couldn?t because he had been stabbed by the accused person. I asked Mulero to assist me to pull him up. He told us he could not stand up. I got hold of his phone but it had low battery. I left for a business center to make call to my brother Abbey. I told him to come to the accused person?s shop in Ajegunle, to come and see the deceased who had been stabbed. When I got back to the scene, I asked the deceased what happened. He told me there was a disagreement between him (deceased) and the accused person, the previous? day and that he (deceased came to beg the accused). He said the accused did not heed his plea but asked him to leave his shop and when he (deceased) was about leaving he started to stab him on the back and other places. I saw blood all over the deceased?s body and wounds all over his back and neck. I and Mulero managed to put the deceased on a Motorcycle and took him to King Cross Hospital, Ogosa. At the King cross Hospital, the deceased was rejected and we were asked to take him somewhere else. I stopped a vehicle and

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