Ogwa Nweke Onah V. The State (1985)

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L. UWAIS, J.S.C. 

This appeal was allowed on the 17th September, 1985. The conviction of murder and the sentence of death passed on the appellant were quashed and in their place we substituted a verdict of acquittal and discharge. Our reasons for doing so were reserved.

I now give mine.

The appellant was tried and convicted of murder by the Anambra State High Court, sitting at Abakaliki. Only the prosecution adduced evidence at the trial. The learned judge believed the testimony of the prosecution witnesses. The gist of their evidence may be summarised as follows. On the 15th January, 1979, one Nweje, P.W.1 who is the husband of the accused, was in the compound of one Idoke when his sister-in-law, called Eke Agbo, came to tell him something; as a result of what she told him, P.W.1 returned to his house. From the house Eke Agbo took him to his farm which was only 5 yards away. Eke Agbo showed him a dead body. P.W.1 recognised the

corpse as that of Edeugwu Ogwa, who was his relation and with whom he lived before he got married to the accused. He observed matchet cuts on the corpse. The cuts were on the neck, shoulder and left hand – the thumb of which had been severed. P.W.1 raised alarm but there was no response from any quarters. He therefore left for the house of the deceased’s husband, P.W.2. He brought the latter with him to the spot where the corpse of the deceased was lying. After P.W.2 saw the corpse both P.W.1 and P.W.2 left together for Ezzamgbo Police Station, where they lodged complaint with the Police.

In her evidence-in-chief before the learned trial judge, P.W.3 said that on 14th January 1979, the accused accompanied by her (accused’s) child and Eke Agbo came to her house at night. The accused asked P.W.3 for her (accused’s) husband. P.W.3 replied that she did not know his whereabout. Accused therefore informed P.W.3 that they would spend the night with her. While all of them were sleeping, P.W.3 heard alarm being raised. P.W.3 asked the accused about the alarm and the latter replied that she did not know why it was being raised. On the following day, that is the 15th January, 1979, another alarm was raised in the morning. P.W.3 asked a question about the alarm and Eke Agbo said in the presence and to the hearing of the accused, that Edeugwu was killed by the accused. The accused said nothing. P.W.3 asked the accused why she killed the deceased. It was then that the accused denied doing so. P.W.3 therefore passed the information to Uro Unna, her (P.W.3) husband, who in turn made a report to Chief Chibeze. The accused was taken to the Police by Chief Chibeze.

The complaint made against the accused was investigated by Police Sergeant Franklin Irozuru, P.W.4. Accompanied by two other policemen, P.W.4 went to Umuagara where he observed what he described as blood stain around the compound of P.W.1. He saw the deceased lying dead with her neck almost severed and other wounds on her left palm and leg. While searching, P.W.4 discovered a matchet and tendered it in evidence at the trial as exhibit A. The corpse of the deceased was removed by P.W.4 to the public mortuary at Abakaliki, where a post-mortem examination was performed by a doctor, P. W.5. While in police custody, the accused made a statement (exhibit B) under caution. The statement was taken down by P.W.4. This is what the accused said in the statement-

“when I was well I knew Edeugwu Ogwa. I do not know whether Edeugwu came to greet me in Ona house. I do not know whether I am the one who killed Edeugwu. If I am the one that killed her, I did not know what happened then.”

P.W.4 testified further that while the accused was making exhibit B he observed that the wrapper which she wore was blood-stained in many places. The wrapper was put in evidence as exhibit C. Under cross-examination, P.W.4 admitted that neither the matchet (exhibit A) nor the wrapper (exhibit C) were sent to Forensic Laboratory, Lagos for examination. He also said that the accused did not talk coherently while making exhibit B.

At this stage it is pertinent to observe that when he was being cross-examined, P.W.1 stated that the accused used to complain that the whole of her body was hot and atimes she would observe “something like a thick foam of darkness on her eyes.” She would then become unconscious. P.W.1 said he saw the accused in that condition of health on about four separate occasions.

The last witness called by the prosecution was P.W.5, the Medical Officer, that performed the post-mortem examination on the deceased. The relevant portion of his evidence reads:

“The deceased was 35 years old. The deceased had two deep severe knife cuts on both sides of the neck that nearly severed the head, a deep cut on the left palm elbow (sic) of the left hand and the shin of the left leg. The deceased in my opinion died of bleeding from multiple knife injuries and in particular from the cut in the neck. The cuts could have been caused with a matchet.

This in effect is the totality of the evidence adduced by the prosecution at the trial. The accused exercised her option not to give evidence. However in the course of making his final address, her counsel submitted that the nature of the prosecution case was circumstantial and the evidence adduced was not sufficient for the trial court to find the accused guilty as charged. He submitted further, but at the tail-end of his address that the “accused was suffering from some delusions.”

In a well considered judgment, the learned trial judge (Offiah J.) found that there was a nexus between the accused and the offence charged. He gave his reasons for so finding to be as follows: