Maba V. State (2020)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

KUDIRAT MOTONMORI OLATOKUNBO KEKERE-EKUN, J.S.C. 

This appeal is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal Sokoto Division, delivered on 4th March 2016, affirming the conviction and sentence of three years imprisonment without option of fine passed on the appellant by the High Court of Sokoto State delivered on 1st February, 2008 for conspiracy and armed robbery punishable under Sections 97 and 298 of the Penal Code.

The appellant and one Abubakar Ibrahim were charged jointly. They were alleged to have conspired to rob and did actually rob one Fatima Darai, while armed with a knife on or about 16th June, 2006 in Takau village of Tangaza Local Government. Area, Sokoto. They were alleged to have forcefully collected the sum of N5,000 from her.

Both accused pleaded not guilty to the two counts of the charge. The appellant was the 2nd accused. The prosecution called four witnesses and tendered exhibits, including the English and Hausa versions of statements made to the Police by the appellant, which were marked Exhibits C and C1 respectively.

​The facts are straightforward. According to the complainant, Fatima Darai

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(PW3), on 16th June, 2007 at about 3p.m, she travelled to Takkau village for a business transaction with her customer, one Baidu. While Baidu was counting the money paid to her for goods purchased by him, she noticed the appellant and his co-accused gambling and smoking cannabis nearby. On her way back to her village in the company of a neighbour, she was attacked by the two men. It was her testimony that the 1st accused, Abubakar, held her by the neck and pulled her to the ground while the appellant brought out a knife threatening to slit her throat unless she handed over the money she had just collected. She disclosed to them that the money was in her shirt pocket. She was stripped of her shirt and the appellant and his co-accused took the sum of N5,020.00 they found there. Her neighbour fled the scene. She stated that after the incident she made a report to the Police and that she told them she knew the accused persons although she did not know their names.

​PW1, Sgt. Ahmed Bala was the exhibit keeper. He tendered in evidence a knife, which was admitted as exhibit 1 and the sum of N980.00 in various denominations, which were marked exhibit 1A.

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PW2, Sgt. Chindo Manu, attached to CID Sokoto, was the Investigating Police Officer (I.P.O.) in the case. He recorded the appellant’s statements and testified as to the procedure adopted in obtaining the statements. Being confessional in nature, he testified that he took the appellant before a superior officer before whom he confirmed that the statements were voluntarily made.

Learned counsel for the appellant objected to the tendering of the statements on the ground that they were not made voluntarily. In the circumstance, the learned trial judge ordered a trial-within-trial to be conducted to test the voluntariness of the statement. Midway into the trial-within-trial, the appellant’s counsel withdrew the objection. The Hausa and English versions of the two statements were consequently admitted in evidence and marked exhibits C and C1 respectively.

​PW4, PC Yahaya Lawal, attached to Gidan Modi Police Division, testified that as part of his investigation into the matter, he recovered a knife in the home of the appellant and that the appellant handed over the sum of N980 to him, after which he was directed to transfer the matter to the C.I.D. Office, Sokoto.

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The appellant testified in his own defence. He denied any involvement in the crime and stated that he was tortured and forced to make exhibits C and C1. He denied knowing his co-accused and stated that he was at his home in Takkau village on the day of the incident.