Kalgo V. State (2021)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, J.S.C. 

On 25/1/2014, at Kalgo Town, Kalgo Local Government of Kebbi State, a group of hunters, including the Appellant and one Mohammed Bandi, went on a hunting, expedition, and a fight broke out over bush meat.

Offended by what Mohammed Bandi said to him during the fight, the Appellant used an axe to inflict injury on Mohammed Bandi’s head.

Mohammed Bandi was first taken to a Hospital in Birnin Kebbi, and was later transferred to the University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, where he died twelve days later. The Appellant was arraigned before the High Court of Kebbi State and charged with the offence of culpable homicide punishable with death. After a trial in which four witnesses testified for the Prosecution, and he testified in his own defence, the Appellant was found guilty and was convicted and sentenced to death.

He appealed to the Court of Appeal but his appeal was dismissed; the Court of Appeal affirmed the decision of the trial Court. Aggrieved, he has appealed to this Court with a Notice of Appeal containing three Grounds of Appeal, and he formulated the following issue in his Brief:

1

Whether from the evidence before the trial Court, the Respondent proof (sic) the offence of culpable homicide with death beyond reasonable doubt against the Appellant.

The Respondent adopted the sole issue as formulated by the Appellant, including the use of the word “proof” instead of proved, in its own Brief.

I must say that the Issue for Determination as formulated by the Appellant and adopted by the Respondent leaves much to be desired. There was no mention of the Court of Appeal and it is well settled that there is no nexus or connection between this Court and the trial Court; not directly anyway. The Findings of a trial Court must be affirmed or reversed by the Court of Appeal before its decision gets to this Court – see Uor V. Loko (1988) 2 NWLR (Pt. 77) 430, Djukpan V. Orovuyovbe (1967) 1 All NLR 134, Ajuwon V. Adeoti (1990) 2 NWLR (Pt. 131) 271.

But this Appeal involves a death sentence, and it is clear that the issue for determination is simply whether the Court of Appeal was right to affirm the trial Court’s decision that the Appellant is guilty as charged for the offence of culpable homicide punishable with death. First of

2

all, there was no direct evidence of what transpired between the Appellant and the deceased; no one saw him inflict injury on the deceased’s head. The first three witnesses called by the Prosecution only narrated what happened after the deceased was injured and taken to the Hospital(s).

However, the Appellant’s Confessional Statements to the Police were admitted in evidence as Exhibits 2 & 3 through the Investigating Police Officer, CpI. Abdullahi Lawal, who testified as PW4. In Exhibit 2, recorded by the said PW4 on 6/2/2014, the Appellant stated as follows:

On Saturday – 25/01/14 – – we went to the bush for hunting in a group, after we went there, we started fighting each other and the reason for the fight was bush meat. There is one man by name Mohd Bandi, he said he wanted to kill me during the fight, from there he remove his cutlass and I remove my own, from there I cut him on his head and I ran away inside town (sic), from there Police arrested me and brought me to the Police Station. I was in the Prison yard when I heard the information that Mohd Bandi has died.