Musa Sadau Anor. Yaro V The State (1968)

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COKER, J.S.C.

Musa Sadau and Audu Yaro were tried by Wheeler, J. in the High Court, Kaduna, and convicted on various counts of the several charges laid against four persons who were originally charged and tried together. The case for the prosecution is that the accused persons were involved in a racket by which vehicle licences and similar forms were printed at the Government Press without authority and illegally sold for money by and on behalf of the members of the gang. Musa Sadau was the first accused at the trial and Audu Yaro was the third accused. The second accused, one Sho-Silva, and the fourth accused, one Alhaji Ishiaku, were acquitted and discharged on the charges against them.

The first accused was convicted on the first, third and sixth counts of the charge against him and the third accused convicted on the only count of the charge against him.

The third accused did not file any appeal papers; he however filed a motion before us asking for leave to appeal out of time and to do so in forma pauperis. We have considered his applications and as we can find nothing on the record of appeal which can be usefully urged by him or on his behalf, we conclude that no useful purpose would be served by acceding to his request. We therefore refuse him leave to appeal out of time.

The counts in respect of which the first accused (hereinafter referred 1o: as the appellant) was convicted are as follows:-

“1. That you Musa Sadau on or about the 21st day of April, 1964 at Zaria were found in possession of forged documents to wit, 17 driving licence books, 5 driving licence covers, 22 vehicle licences, 2 books of certificate of road worthiness, 9 forged certificates of road worthiness, 1 booklet professional driving licence, 2 sheets of Professional Driving Licence and 13 dealers’ licence: knowing same to be forged and intending the same shall dishonestly be used as genuine and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 368 of the Penal Code.

2. That you Musa Sadau on or about the 6th day of April, 1964 at Zaria dishonestly used as genuine forged vehicle licence No. 934057 and forged stage carriage licence No. 071233 by selling the same to one Muhammadu Wawadu, knowing them to be forged and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 366 of the Penal Code.

3. That you Musa Sadau on or about the 3rd day of April, 1964 at Zaria dishonestly used as genuine forged vehicle licence No. 735400 and stage carriage licence No. 23367 by selling the same to one Alhaji Umaru Tulu knowing them to be forged and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 366 of the Penal Code.”

The case against him was that he had procured the second accused to print for him a quantity of vehicle licensing forms and that from time to time he sold these forged licences for money. He was known as a licence agent and was in the habit of collecting money from vehicle owners and issuing them with the forged ones which had been printed for him. It was also part of the case for the prosecution that his house was searched in the early hours of the 21st April, 1964 (according to the endorsement on the search warrant, exhibit 31) and a large quantity of vehicle licences and licensing forms, driving licence booklets, a number of stamps and ink pads resembling those of the Government licensing authorities, were recovered.

His statements to the Police were ruled inadmissible at the trial and in his evidence before the court he denied having in his possession any vehicle licences or other forms and also selling such licences to anyone. He also stated that his only occupation was that of a bicycle repairer. He denied that the vehicle licences and other licensing forms produced by the Police and described as having been found in his house as a result of the search were found with him and stated that they were all contained in a bag carried into the house by the Police Officer who searched his house and planted them there. In a reserved judgment, the teamed trial judge disbelieved his story, concluded that the forms produced by the Police were found in his house and in his possession and that they were some of the fortes which he had been selling to some of the prosecution witnesses who testified against him at his trial to that effect. He was accordingly convicted on the three counts set out above but discharged on the other counts of the charge against him.

Hence this appeal. Three grounds of appeal were filed and argued as follows:-

“(1) That the decision is unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence.

(2) That the learned trial judge was wrong in holding that non-compliance with section 78 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code on the part of the prosecution was not fatal to prosecutions’ case re the first charge against the appellant

(3) That the sentence is excessive.”