Princewill V. The State (1994)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

IGUH, J.S.C.

The appellant, Jeminabo A. Princewill, was on the 8th day of March, 1985 arraigned before the High court of Rivers State holden at Port Harcourt, charged with the offence of murder contrary to section 319 of the Criminal code. The particulars of the offence charged are as follows:-

“That you, Jeminabo Adokiye Princewill, on the 24th day of December, 1982 at 37, Ibadan Street, Waterside, Port Harcourt in the Port Harcourt Judicial Division murdered Ebitenyefa Clifford”.

The appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge and the case proceeded to trial.

The substance of the case as presented by the prosecution is that the deceased at all material times was the wife of the appellant. At about 8 p.m. of the 24th December, 1982, P.W4. Okoritei Amachree, who is the appellant’s brother heard him ask the deceased for his key. The deceased replied that she misplaced the key whereupon the appellant ordered her to move to the window and open it. The deceased had put one leg on the window in an attempt to enter the room when the appellant struck her with a piece of plank about two feet long, alleging that she, the deceased, had stolen and sold all his glasses. On noticing what had happened, one Perere Stanley went immediately and reported to P.W.1. Chief Princewill, the father of the appellant, that the appellant was killing his wife. P.W.1 came out and saw the appellant on top of the deceased beating her. When P.W.1 tried to intervene, the appellant, threatened to deal with him.

According to P.W.4, the appellant threw bottles at co-tenants who tried to come to the scene. P.W.1 was obliged to lodge a report at the Borokiri Police Station and subsequently at the Central Police Station, Port Harcourt. The D.P.P. and 14 Policemen who accompanied him to the scene saw the appellant’s door padlocked and returned to the station.

It seemed that P.W.1 on a closer look into the appellant’s room saw him and also noticed that his wife was dead. Following this discovery, the appellant’s house was surrounded by people, some of whom were knocking at his door. It was at this stage that the appellant escaped through his back window and disappeared. The appellant’s door was forced open and the dead body of his wife was seen inside the room in a pool of blood. Consequently P.W.1 returned to the Central Police Station, Port Harcourt and reported a case of murder.

Another batch of policemen visited the scene. They included the D.P.O., P.W.5 Inspector Wadai Ibetei who was the Investigating Police Officer (I.P.O.) and others. At the scene, P.W.1 took them to the back of the appellant’s room.

There, they saw blood stains which were trailed right into the appellant’s room.

They also saw the deceased lying dead on the floor of the appellant’s room with wounds on her head and bruises on her back. The deceased’s sister, Joyce Ogilogi, who is P.W.2 was also at the scene. The I.P.O. in company of other policemen including one Assistant Superintendent of Police (A.S.P), Robinson Obuebite, who is a relation of the deceased, P.W.1 and P.W.2 conveyed the dead body of the deceased to the General Hospital, Port Harcourt for autopsy.

On the 26th December, 1982, P.W.3, Dr. Dax Uzu, performed a postmortem examination on a certain dead body whose name he could not remember. According to him, the deceased was identified to him by one Joyce. The body was that of a young woman with multiple abrasions on the face and around the neck. She had lenial fracture of the parietal skull. The fracture measured 3-4 centimetres in length. Underlying this fracture was extensive cerebral contusion associated with haemorrhage. In his opinion, the cause of death was due to cerebral contusion and haemorrhage, P.W.S was present when the post mortem examination was performed by P.W.3, P.W.2, Joyce Ogilogi denied however that she was present when post mortem examination on the deceased was performed by P.W.3.

Following some information received by the Police, P.W.5 with three other policemen proceeded to Iwofe village where the appellant was sighted inside an uncompleted building. They surrounded the building. The appellant when he came out and saw them attempted to escape by running but he was pursued, arrested and taken to the Central Police Station, Port Harcourt. He was charged and cautioned and he volunteered the statement Exhibit B. In it, the appellant claimed that it was while he was fighting with the deceased that she fell on top of an iron and fainted. He admitted that it was himself that killed the deceased. Exhibit B was confirmed as a true and voluntary statement of the appellant to the police before a Superior Police Officer. In his viva voce evidence before the court, however, the appellant alleged that the deceased met her death when in state of intoxication she jumped out of their window and hit her head against some sticks used for the embankment.

The learned trial Judge, Ungbuku. J., as he then was, after a review of the evidence on the 2nd day of March, 1987 found the appellant guilty of murder as charged and sentenced him to death by hanging.

Dissatisfied with this judgment of the trial court, the appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, against his conviction and sentence.