Pius Nweke V. The State (2001)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

OGUNDARE J.S.C. 

The appellant stood trial in the High Court of Ogun State in the Ijebu-Igbo Judicial Division for the murder of his wife, Josephine Pius Nweke. Having pleaded not guilty to the charge, the prosecution called seven witnesses in proof of its case. At the close of the case for the prosecution, the defence opened its case by calling the appellant to testify. Thereafter, counsel for both the defence and the prosecution addressed the Court. In a reserved judgment, the learned trial Judge accepted the case for the prosecution and found –

1. That the prosecution had proved the death of the deceased;
2. That the corpse deposited at the State Hospital Ijebu-Ode and on which PW1, Dr. O.O. Oyekan performed a post-mortem examination was that of Josephine Pius Nweke, the late wife of the appellant;
3. That “the death of the deceased was a result of the cut that was given her in her throat”;
4. That the wound that killed the deceased was not self inflicted.

On these findings the learned Judge found the appellant guilty of the murder of Josephine and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The appellant appealed unsuccessfully to the Court of Appeal and has now further appealed to this Court on two grounds of appeal. In the brief filed on behalf of the appellant and pursuant to the rules of this court, the following two issues are posed as calling for determination in this appeal, they are:

“(1) Whether the court below was not wrong when it confirmed the conviction of the appellant for murder considering the quality of circumstantial evidence adduced by the prosecution at the trial.

(2) Whether the court below was not wrong when it confirmed the appellant’s conviction for the murder of his deceased wife when there was no certainty as the identity of the body on which a postmortem examination was performed by PW 1”.

Before I go into a consideration of these issues, I need set out the facts. The case for prosecution is that the appellant and the deceased, Josephine Pius Nweke were husband and wife; they both lived together at Oribe village, via Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, until the death of the deceased (appellant’s wife) on November 11,1992. The couple had a kolanut farm at Odoliwu village, via Ago Iwoye. In the morning of 11th November 1992, the appellant and his wife left their Oribe village together for their farm at Odoliwu village. This was at about 10 a.m, They passed by Tairu Hassan and Olusola Kadiri (PW3 and PW4 respectively) in the Oribe village and exchanged greetings with them. They all knew each other before that day as they lived in the same village – Oribe. About an hour after the appellant and his wife had left PW3 and PW4 for their kolanut farm, the latter heard an unusual noise from the direction of the farm of the appellant. They moved towards the farm in order to find out what was the cause of the noise. On their way to the appellant’s farm they met the appellant coming back from the farm; he was alone. They inquired from the appellant the cause of the noise from his farm. The appellant replied that his wife (the deceased) was a troublesome woman and that she was carrying a pregnancy that did not belong to him. He added that he had asked the deceased to take the pregnancy to the owner but the deceased refused to do so. When PW3 and PW4 asked the appellant the whereabouts of the deceased, he replied that the deceased had left the farm through another route. PW3 and PW4 walked with the appellant to the former’s hut where, at the appellant’s request, they gave him water to drink. The appellant, who was all the time carrying a load on his head and had a matchet in his hand, put the load down in order to drink the water they gave him. It was at this stage PW3 and PW4 noticed that the appellant had in the luggage the same clothes and pair of slippers the deceased wife wore that morning when she passed them on her way to the farm. They became suspicious. The appellant noticing the curiosity of these two witnesses for the prosecution lifted up his load, put it on his head and went away.

PW3 and PW4 decided to find out what happened in the farm and left for the appellant’s farm. On reaching there they found the dead body of his deceased wife with her throat slashed. She was naked and lying in a pool of blood. They made a report to the police who then commenced investigation into the death of the deceased. Police took a photographer to the scene and the latter took some snapshots of the deceased. The corpse of the deceased was later conveyed to the State Hospital mortuary at Ijebu-Ode, where PW1 performed a post-mortem examination on the corpse. According to the evidence of PW 1 which the learned trial Judge accepted, the corpse of the deceased had a deep cut in front of the neck. On the chest there was nothing significant. The examination of the abdomen revealed that the deceased was pregnant. On opening the abdomen I found a dead male baby. There was no fracture of the leg. My opinion as to the cause of death was loss of blood due to the cut throat.

The appellant was arrested some days after the incident and on his arrest by the police; he made a statement in which he denied killing his wife. In his evidence at the trial he denied going together with his wife to the kolanut farm. He testified that it was the wife who went alone to the farm to pick kolanuts; he went to another farm to work. On his return from the farm he went to, he inquired from neighbours if his wife had returned from the kolanut farm. He was told she had not returned. It was then night time and he could not do anything that night. The following morning, however, he set out in search of his wife. Here is what he said in evidence:

“The following day I went to look for her at Odoliwu. When I asked some villagers if they had seen my wife in the village, they told me they did not see her and that she never came to that village the previous day. When I did not find her after a thorough search I returned to Origbe village from Origbe I went to Imodi-Mosan. When I got to Imodi-Mosan, I went to my wife’s senior sister’s house to report to her that I could not find her sister, my wife. The sister was not at home. When I looked around for her sister at Imodi-Mosan I did not find her, I went to our hometown. I did not know that my wife was already dead; I had thought she had traveled home that is why I went home to look for her. In our hometown, I inquired from people if my wife had come home. They told me they had not seen her. I went to look for her from her (my wife’s) relative. They said they did not see her. Her relative inquired from me if there was a quarrel between me my wife. I told them there was no quarrel between us. It was when I returned from our hometown and went to Imodi-Mosan that I went to report to the police at the police station that I did not see my wife.

That was the time they arrested me”.

I now turn to the issue raised in this appeal beginning with issue (1).

Issue (1)

This issue relates to the quality of the circumstantial evidence relied on by the prosecution and on which the learned trial Judge convicted the appellant. It is the submission of learned counsel for the appellant that the evidence accepted by the trial Judge was not positive, cogent and compelling to justify a conviction being based on it. It is learned counsel’s submission that the evidence raised, at best, suspicion. He also submitted that the evidence did not rule out the possibility of someone else committing the offence. Relying on the evidence of PW1 under cross-examination, learned counsel also submitted that the possibility of the deceased committing suicide could not be ruled out either.