Egheghe V. State (2020)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

UWANI MUSA ABBA AJI, J.S.C.

On Sunday 16 October 2011, the deceased with his mother closed from church service at Christ Embassy, along Sani Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, and boarded a motorcycle separately. At the police checkpoint, the police officer collected N50 from the rider which caused the deceased to exclaim “Oga policeman, don’t you people go to church even on Sunday. Pity this poor man now.” With this harmless remark, the police officer slapped the deceased for interference with his duty, which triggered the cyclist to speed off to avoid further beatings. The police however chased them, caught the deceased on the shirt, pulled him down and shot him severally to death.

The appellant (policeman) with two other fellow police officers were charged to Court. The two others were discharged while the appellant was convicted as charged and sentenced to death by hanging. The lower Court affirmed his conviction, hence this appeal. In arguing the appeal, the appellant formulated 2 issues for the determination of the appeal:

1. Whether the Court below was right in its judgment

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delivered on 8 December 2016 to have upheld the appellant’s conviction and sentence to death by hanging by the trial High Court, which gave the verdict without proper and adequate consideration of the defences proffered by the appellant?

2. Whether the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the appellant?

I shall collapse the 2 issues into one:

“Whether by the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, the appellant’s conviction can be sustained?”

In his desperate defence, the appellant argued that his self defence and defence of accident were not properly considered.

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His case is that the deceased pursued them with a pair of scissors and in fact got him injured and in self-defence, he used his gun to demobilize him. For the plea of accident, he testified that he never knew that his gun was on rapid mode when he shot the deceased. A terse excerpt of the appellant’s case reads:

“I wanted to run away from him also, but I could not run because I was already weak. I managed to cock my rifle in order to demobilize him and to stop him from further havoc. Unknowing to me that my rifle was at rapid

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mode. Immediately I fired at him, he fell on the ground.”

To knock down the evidence and testimony of the appellant, the respondent in proof of their case, called witnesses. PW1, being the mother of the deceased that was with him when the harassment and shooting took place, gave evidence, especially at page 48 of the record, that after the police chased her son with their vehicle, they tried to catch him but could not and one said “shoot him, shoot him.” That the appellant shot and shot at the deceased’s head until it was shattered and the brain came out. That after he was dead, they entered their vehicle and hurriedly left. PW2, the pathologist testified that 9 bullet wounds were inflicted on the deceased, with 5 on the head, both hands and the right hip had 2 bullet wounds each. That the wounds on the head caused compound fractures on the skull bones and laceration of the brain. His conclusion was that the cause of death was multiple gunshot injuries. PW3, the IPO, gave evidence that “there was overreaction by shooting the deceased with life ammunition to death.”