Musa Zubairu V. The State (2015)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

NWALI SYLVESTER NGWUTA, J.S.C.

Appellant was the third of four persons charged with the offence of culpable homicide punishable with death, an offence punishable under Section 221 of the Penal Code. The charge was brought before the Katsina Judicial Division of the High Court of Katsina State on 5th November, 2002.

The chain of events leading to the charge started on the 7th day of April, 2002. The alleged deceased, Murtala Mohammed, was alleged to have had a misunderstanding with the 1st to the 3rd accused persons who beat him up and inflicted injuries on him. It was alleged that as he was being beaten by the 1st to 3rd accused, the deceased said he would break the windscreen of the car belonging to the 4th accused, the father of the 1st to 3rd accused. It was discovered in the morning of the following day, 8th April, 2002, that the windscreen of the said car was broken.

On getting the report of the damage to his car, the 4th accused sent the other accused persons to fetch the deceased to him. He was brought to the home of the 4th accused where he was beaten and detained in the 4th

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accused person’s house to await the arrival of the Police who had been sent for. When the Police came to take him to the station, the deceased resisted and fell into the gutter wherein he started bathing with the filthy water therein.

He was eventually taken to the station in a wheelbarrow and from the Police Station he was taken to a hospital where he was alleged to have died the same day. Other than that the deceased died in the hospital nothing was said about what transpired in the Police station or the hospital before he died.

At the trial, the prosecution fielded ten witnesses including three Police witnesses. The Hausa and English versions of the statement of the 4th accused were admitted in evidence without objection and marked Exhibits A1 and A2, respectively. A challenge to the voluntariness of the statements of the 1st to 3rd accused persons led to trials within trial in which the trial Court rejected the said statements as not voluntarily made.

The defence called seven witnesses and rested its case.

Having considered all the materials placed before him, the learned trial Judge held, inter alia:

“In view of the

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foregoing, I hereby convict all the accused persons who are charged jointly before this Court with culpable homicide not punishable with death under S.222(7) of the penal Code which provides:

‘Culpable homicide is not punishable with death when a person causes the death of another by doing any rash or negligent act…’