Edet Offong Ekpe V. The State (1993)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

AKINTAN, J.C.A.

The Appellant, Edet Offong Ekpe, was arraigned before Calabar High Court on Information in which he was charged with the murder of one Dickson Udo contrary to Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Laws of Cross River State. The Particulars of the Offence are that the Appellant “on the 15th day of April, 1993 at Ikot Asuquo Affiong Anye Village, Akpabuyo in the Calabar Judicial Division, murdered Dickson Udo.”

The case was tried by Ecoma, J. The Appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge and the Prosecution called seven witnesses to establish its case. The Appellant gave evidence in his defence. The learned trial Judge, in a reserved judgment delivered on 28th May, 1986, found the Appellant guilty as charged. He was accordingly sentenced to death by hanging. The Appellant was dissatisfied with the verdict of the court and has appealed to this court.

The facts of the case are briefly as follows:

The deceased, Dickson Udo, was living at Ikot Asuquo village near Calabar with his daughter, Nkoyo Dickson Udo (P.W.4) and son, Asuquo Okon Dickson (P.W.5). In the evening of 15th April, 1983 after the deceased and his two issues (P.W.4 and P.W.5) had returned from farm, the deceased sent his daughter, Nkoyo (P.W.4), to buy some food items from a local shop in the village. The girl left on the errand carrying a lantern as it was already dark. The Appellant was also living in the same village. His house is on Nkoyo’s way to the local shop where she was to buy the food stuff.

The girl went to the shop and bought what she was sent to purchase. She then set out on her way home. While on her way home, she met the Appellant by the road side near the store. The Appellant asked the girl to follow him to his house with her lantern so that he could light his own lantern at home. The girl obliged. On getting to the front of the Appellant’s house, the girl gave her lantern to the Appellant who then went into his house with it and lit his own lantern. He however failed to return the girl’s lantern after lighting his. The girl called on him to return the lantern. The Appellant replied by inviting the girl to come into his room and collect her lantern. The girl went there.

As the girl was about to pick up her lantern, the Appellant held her hand and forcibly pulled her into his room as a result of which the girl hit her face on the bed in the room. The Appellant then told the girl that he was going to have sexual intercourse with her. She raised an alarm and called on one Udo Udo Jonah (P.W.1) whom she saw around shortly before the incident, for help. The girl’s father (the deceased) was eventually informed of what was happening to his daughter in the accused’s room. He ran there in company of his son, Asuquo Okon Dickson (P.W.5) and Udo Jonah (P.W.1).

When the deceased, with P.W.5 and P.W.1 arrived at the Appellant’s house, the deceased started to knock at the Appellant’s door and called on him to open his door for P.W.4 to come out. The Appellant did not open the door. P.W.4 was still crying for help then. But when eventually he opened the door, he hit the deceased on the head with a bottle which he picked from his room and was already holding at the time he opened the door. The deceased fell down, and died shortly thereafter.

While the deceased was on the floor, the Appellant again picked up a stick (scantling) and hit the deceased several times on the head with it. The Appellant used two beer bottles in all to hit the deceased. When he hit the deceased with the first bottle, it got broken. He then picked up a second one and with it he hit the deceased again on the head. It also got broken. He thereafter used the stick.

The deceased suffered serious head injuries as a result of the hitting he received from the Appellant who thereafter dragged the deceased from where he fell at the entrance into the Appellant’s room to the veranda of the house. It was from there that the deceased’s dead body was conveyed by the police to the hospital the next day.

Dr. Emmanuel Bassey Itam (P.W.3), the Medical practitioner who performed a post-mortem examination on the corpse, found that “there was a severe deep cut on the scalp and 6cm deep cut on the left temporal area of the skull, with skull and brain tissue crushed in the left area of the skull.” He certified the cause of death as the injuries to the skull.

The Appellant made a Statement to the police after his arrest (Exh. 4 with English translation as Exh. 4A). In it, he was recorded as admitting that he was the person who hit the deceased with a bottle on his head and that the man fell down in his (the Appellant’s) house.

The Appellant’s story of the event given in his evidence at the trial is different from the admission contained in his Statement (Exh.4). He told the court that Nkoyo Dickson (P.W.4) was his girl friend and that he gave the girl N10 earlier that evening. The girl then went away with a promise to return to the Appellant later the same evening. She did return to the Appellant as promised. She then carried a lantern and told the Appellant that she was going to the store and that the Appellant should wait for her. The Appellant said he went to meet her in the store and both of them walked back to the Appellant’s house from the store.

At the Appellant’s house, the girl and the Appellant went into the Appellant’s room, closed the door and had sexual intercourse. As soon as they finished, the Appellant said he heard a knock at his door. But as the person knocking did not say a word, he (Appellant) did not open the door as he did not know the person knocking at the door. The person knocking at the door left. After a short time, there was a another knock at his door. This time the Appellant saw a ray of light from the lantern carried by the visitor who knocked and continued to bang at the door to his room. The door opened. The Appellant said he came out and saw three people – Udo Udo Jonah (P.W.1); the deceased; and Asuquo Dickson (P.W.5). The Appellant alleged that P.W.5 hit him with the lantern he carried at the entrance to the room. The Appellant said he returned into his room. The girl (P.W.4) was then still in the room. The deceased and the two people who came with him (P.W.5 & P.W.1) followed him into the room and then started to beat the Appellant. The three men took the empty bottle in his room and hit him (Appellant) with it. He (Appellant) sustained injury on the head. The lantern was already broken and there was therefore no light in the room.