Lekan Shodiya V. The State (2013)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

MUSA DATTITO MUHAMMAD, J.S.C.

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal Sitting at Ibadan, hereinafter referred to as the court below, delivered on the 23rd June 2009, affirming the conviction of the appellant, Lekan Sodiya, by the Ogun State High Court, hereinafter referred to as the trial court, for the offence of conspiracy to commit armed robbery contrary to Section 5(b) and punishable under Section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Fire arms (special provisions) Act CAP. The court pursuant to Section 1(1) of the Act, however substituted the death sentence passed by the trial court for a term of life imprisonment. Being dissatisfied by the decision, the appellant has further appealed to this Court on a Notice, see pages 189-190 of the record of Appeal, containing four grounds.

The brief facts of the case that brought about the appeal, from the record of appeal, are that the appellant was arraigned and tried along with two others before the trial court for conspiracy to commit armed robbery at the residence of Mr Olusesan Sowunmi, PW3, at Kenta House Estate, Idi Aba, Abeokuta. Appellant was charged for the said offence along with two other person and others then still at large. He pleaded not guilty whereupon the respondent called ten witnesses and tendered four Exhibits to prove its case against the accused persons. Appellant testified on his own behalf and called his mother who testified further on his behalf.

Respondent’s case is that on the 4th of November 1999, at about 11:pm, four men scaled the fence and jumped into the compound of Mr Olusesan Sowunmi, Pw3, at Kenba Housing estate, Idi-Aba Abeokuta. The men had earlier overpowered PW7 and ordered him to take them to where Pw3, his master, was in the compound. Only Pw1, Pw3’s wife, was in the compound. Pw3 had gone out at the particular time. The men, armed with guns, subjected Pw1 and the other occupants of the premises to all manner of inhuman treatment, took away whatever they could get, including Pw3’s Mercedez Benz car in which they drove away from the compound after the robbery operation.

On receiving Pw3’s report of the robbery on the 7th of November 1999, Pw8, a police officer, accompanied him to his house from where he recovered a gun carrier bag, Exhibit B, two expended cartridges, Exhibit B1, four live cartridges, Exhibit B2 and a cartridge carrier belt Exhibit 83. Following some information they received, Pw8 along with other police officers also retrieved Pw3’s Mercedez Benz car at the Lantoro end of the Elite Road where the robbers had abandoned it. Pw9 and Pw10 are both police sergeants at the State criminal Investigation Department, Eleweran to which the robbery case was transferred for further investigation. Their investigation led to the arrest of the Appellant and the two other accused persons along whom he was tried and convicted.

On his arrest, the respondent further asserts, the appellant made a statement wherein he mentioned the names of those who carried out the robbery in Pw3’s house on the night of 4th November 1999 of those mentioned, Pw9 and Pw10, with the help of the appellant who took them to their houses, arrested appellant’s co-accused. The two made confessional statements to Pw9 and Pw10 about the robbery at the house of Pw3. The statements of the appellant and his two co-accused persons were admitted in evidence, after a trial-with in-trial, the respondent having been held by the trial court to have established the voluntariness of the statements. Exhibit C2, appellant’s own statement, asserts the respondent, shows beyond doubt that appellant had informed the other accused persons that Pw3 had some money in his house and reached some understanding with the robbers that they carry out the robbery that eventually took place. The very Exhibit also reveals how the appellant met with the other accused persons after the armed robbery.

The appellant in his defence conceded that he works with Pw3 as an apprentice produce buyer in training; that having been released from his apprenticeship by and with Pw3’s permission and, after washing his boss’s car, appellant left Pw3’s house on 4th November 1999 at about ten o clock in the morning. At departure, Pw1 and Pw3 gave the appellant two thousand (N2,000) and one thousand naira (N1000) respectively; that he proceeded to his mother’s house, Dw4, to inform her of his release from the apprenticeship and that he was proceeding to Owode – Idi-Iroko to collect money from the people who had bought cocoa from him on credit while he was still under Pw3. He slept at Owode, the appellant further told the trial court, when he was unable to find the people he was to collect the sum of nine thousand naira they owed to Pw3. The debtors who had no money at the time of appellant’s call, pleaded with him to return at a later date before which, however, he was arrested and forced to make Exhibit C2, the content of which he asserted were not true. He said he was at Dw4’s residence on his return from Owode when he was arrested on the 8th November 1999.

The 2nd accused Dw2 told the trial court that the appellant took PW9 and PW10 to his residence on 8th November, 1999 where the latter arrested him. He asserted that he was beaten and tortured by PW9 and PW10 before he made exhibit C1. He stated not knowing the appellant before 1998 and that they came into talking terms subsequently.

The 3rd accused in testifying at the trial court stated that he was arrested at Eleweran where he went to look for his brother. He was arrested on 18th November, 1999. He denied ever knowing the appellant before the robbery incident. He insisted under cross examination that he never conspired with anyone to rob PW3 or any other person at all.

At the end of the trial including addresses of counsel, the trial court found the appellant guilty, pursuant to the only head of charge against him punishable under Section 1 (2) (a) (i) of the Robbery and Fire Arms (special provisions) Act CAP 398 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, as amended by the Tribunal’s (certain Consequential Amendments) Act 1999, of conspiracy to commit robbery.

The affirmation of the conviction and substitution of the trial court’s sentence of death by firing squad for life imprisonment by the court below informs the instant appeal.

In keeping with rules of court, parties have filed and exchanged briefs which, at the hearing of the appeal, they adopted and relied upon as their arguments for or against the appeal.

At page 4 of his brief of argument, deemed filed on 13th April, 2011, the appellant has identified the following four issues as having arisen for the determination of his appeal.

“1. Assuming (but not conceding) that Exhibit ‘C2’ was rightly admitted in evidence, whether the Trial Court and the Court of Appeal attached the proper evidential weight to it bearing in mind the standards set out in R vs. OBISA (1962) 2 S.C.N.L.R, 402 (Ground 2, Notice of Appeal).