Fredrick Akintade V. The State (2012)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

MOORE A. A. ADUMEIN, J.C.A (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

The appellant was the 3rd accused in Charge No. AK/IC/1998 wherein Feyisayo Alatise and Aderemi Omotayo were the 1st and 2nd accused persons, respectively and they were arraigned in the High Court of Ondo State, Akure Judicial Division on the 29th day of July, 2003 accused of the offences of conspiracy and murder. The charge was tried and determined by Fagbe, J who delivered judgment on the 31st day of January, 2007. The appellant and his co-accused persons were found guilty, convicted and sentenced accordingly.

The appellant was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on the count of conspiracy and to death by hanging on the count of murder. He was dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court and filed a notice of appeal, pursuant to an order of this court made on the 8th day of November 2010, containing the following grounds:

”GROUNDS OF APPEAL

A. GROUND ONE

That the Learned Trial Judge committed a grave error in law and in fact in convicting the Appellant of the offences of Conspiracy and Murder and sentencing him to death when the prosecution failed to prove any direct or positive act or omission of the Appellant that resulted in the death of the deceased and thereby failed to proved his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

PARTICULARS OF ERRORS

a, Section 138 of the Evidence Act cap. E14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 stipulates that burden of proving beyond reasonable doubt that any person is guilty of a crime rests on the one who asserts it i.e. on the prosecution. The duty of proving that a crime was committed and that the Appellant was a party of the crime rests on the prosecution;

b. The prosecution at the trial court did not adduce any evidence whatsoever of any direct act of the Appellant that caused the death of the deceased;

c. The Learned Trial Judge failed to consider the concurring evidence of PW3, the 1st Accused at the trial, the Appellant and the 3rd Accused at the trial that the deceased locked himself in the room and the police had to break in through the window to open the door to reach the deceased. This raised more than reasonable doubt as to how the deceased died and the prosecution did nothing to clear this doubt;

d. The Learned Trial Judge failed to properly evaluate the evidence particularly since the prosecution did not disprove the defence put up by the Appellant that the deceased committed suicide;

e. The learned Trial Judge wrongly relied solely on the evidence of PW1 (deceased person’s wife) and failed completely to consider the evidence of PW3 as to the position of the gun before the crime scene was entered into. PW3 testified in Court that the gun was beside the deceased. The Learned Trial found as a fact that there was evidence that no one entered the room before the police got there but failed to address the issue of the door being locked from the inside.

f. The Learned Trial Judge when he convicted the Appellant for the offences of conspiracy and murder when there was no proof of any direct or positive act or omission by the Appellant that led to the death of the deceased.

g. It is not the law that because the Appellant was one of the last people to see the deceased person he is guilty of murder.