Christopher Akhimien V. The State (1987)

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ANIAGOLU, J.S.C.

Two issues arose in this appeal on a case in which the Appellant was charged with murder, namely,

(1) whether the defence of insanity had been established, and

(2) whether there was an amendment to the information after the address of Counsel, and if so, whether there was a non-compliance with sections 163, 164, 165 and 166 of the Criminal Procedure Law 1976 of Bendel State.

Before, however, resolving these issues, a short account of the background facts as established in evidence and accepted by the trial Judge, is necessary.

The Appellant who was a relation of the father of the deceased was working at Agbor as a mechanic before the incident in this case.

On 10th December 1982 P.W.5 (EDUZELA MICHAEL), who was the mother of the deceased and the wife of P.W.6 (MICHAEL NEHIZENA), was cooking in the kitchen in her house with her son, the deceased, when suddenly they saw the Appellant running towards the kitchen through the sitting room of their house, matchet in hand. When the appellant arrived at the kitchen he immediately proceeded to inflict cuts on the deceased, first on the right hand, and then on his chest and the third one on his waist. As P.W.5 was begging the appellant to stop matcheting her son, the appellant turned to her and cut off her right and left thumbs. He gave her one other cut at her elbow and three other cuts on her head. As P.W. 5 was yet shouting, P.W.1(SUNDAY OIAYA) who lived in the same house as the deceased and his mother, ran to the scene and saw the deceased on the ground in a pool of blood. The appellant promptly chased P.W.l who immediately retreated and escaped into a nearby bush. After chasing him into the bush the appellant returned and inflicted another matchet cut on the left leg of P.W.5 who was then still on her feet. With this last cut on her left leg, P.W.5 fell to the ground unconscious. She did not regain consciousness until the appellant had left the scene of the attack. The deceased’s hand was almost severed from his body.

MICHAEL NEHIZENA (P.W.6), the father of the deceased was not at home when the incident occurred. He returned to find his wife in a pool of blood and his son dead.

He went and reported to the Nigeria Police Station Ebelle, taking the body of his son to the police.

On receiving the complaint the police, one Sergeant Abraham Akhirevbu, went to the house of the appellant and found the front door securely locked. He forced the door open. He entered the house and did not find the appellant but found another door leading to an inner room, also locked. He forced open this second door and there was the appellant standing at the centre of the room with a blood dripping matchet in his hand. As soon as the appellant saw Sgt. Abraham Akhirevbu he lunged forward to strike him with his matchet. Sgt. Akhirevbu then dived and in the ensuing scuffle he was able to wrench the matchet from the hand of the appellant who was subsequently arrested and taken to the Police Station where he made a confessional statement (Exhibit B). The appellant was subsequently charged to court.

On these facts, there was no doubt that the Appellant caused the death of the deceased, IMAZENHIEBE MICHAEL. But the defence has alleged that the appellant was insane at the time he committed the act. By section 140(1) of the Evidence Act the onus is on the Appellant to rebut the presumption of law that every person is presumed to be of sound mind and to have been of sound mind at the time, in the case of this Appellant, when he killed Imazenhiebe Michael. The Appellant is entitled to rely not only on the evidence adduced for the defence, but also on that produced for the prosecution in discharging this onus on him; QUEEN v.YARO BIU (1964) N.M.L.R. 45; M. ONAKPOYA v. THE QUEEN (1959) 4 F.S.C. 150.

Let us now examine the evidence. The Appellant made a statement to the police soon after killing the deceased. He gave his gave his reasons, in the statement, why he killed the deceased. This was what he said:

“On 10/12/82, Eduzela called me a crasy man, then my wife ran away. I cut Eduzela with his piken with cutlass, as she called me crase man and na her husband Michael give me the crase.

And she do give me nonsense food.”