Gboyega Bakare V. Federal Republic Of Nigeria (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

OBIETONBARA DANIEL-KALIO, J.C.A.(Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal is over a criminal matter involving corruption. The Appellant Gboyega Bakare who was the Chairman of Ogun Waterside Local Government of Ogun State and one Mohammed Adeyemi Oke a Senior Administrative Officer in the said Local Government, were charged before the High Court of Ogun State.

The offences for which they were charged were (1) conspiracy to confer corrupt advantage on a public officer contrary to Section 26 (1) (c) and punishable under Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and (2) conferring corrupt advantage upon oneself contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Act 2000.

The charge against the Appellant and his co-accused were on 15 counts. In summary, the Appellant was accused of having collected the sum of N250,000 on a weekly basis in September, October, November and December of 2005 as well as in January and February 2006 purportedly for the feeding of 50 mobile policemen drafted to the Local Government Area on a peace keeping mission.

?After hearing

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the case, the learned trial judge came to the conclusion that the Appellant was guilty of the offences with which he was charged. He therefore sentenced him to a term of 6 months imprisonment on each of the counts against him and ordered that the sentences should run concurrently. Judgment was delivered on 24/7/2013. The Appellant was dissatisfied with the judgment and consequently filed a Notice of Appeal on 11/9/2013. The following are the grounds of his appeal.

1. The Learned Trial judge erred in Law by holding that the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 is the valid existing Law when there was no Law repealing the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2003.
2. The Learned Trial judge erred in Law by holding that the letter dated September 28th, 2009 written by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission signed by Peace Osimiry is sufficient satisfaction of the requirement of consent to prefer criminal charges against the accused person.
3. The Learned Trial judge erred in Law by holding that there is no record to show that the accused person raised objection to the charge at the

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earliest opportunity and that no application was brought by either of them to quash the charges and as such the charges are competent.

4. The Learned Trial judge erred in Law when he returned the verdict of guilty on the Appellant herein when such decision was not supported by the weight of evidence.
5. The decision of the High Court is unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the weight of evidence.

All the Grounds of Appeal except the 5th were supported by particulars. I decided to exclude the particulars because of their prolixity.

The Appellant’s Brief of Argument was filed on 4/5/2015 but deemed properly filed and served on 15/9/2015. The Respondent’s Brief of Argument was filed on 28/9/2015. Chief Lukman Abdullahi and Mrs. K. F. Adeoluwa respectively argued the appeal on behalf of the Appellant and the Respondents respectively. The Appeal was heard on 16/11/2015.

From the five grounds of appeal, the Appellant distilled the following four issues for determination, viz:

”1. Whether the failure of the prosecution to seek leave to prefer criminal charge for indictable offence against the Appellant before the charges

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