Uzoma Okereke & Ors. V. The State (2012)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

UWANI MUSA ABBA AJI (PJ) (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the Judgment of Hon. Justice C. I. Ohakwe of the High Court of Imo State sitting at Owerri, delivered on the 31st day of March, 2009 wherein the Appellants were convicted and sentenced to death under Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code applicable to Imo State.

The facts of the case as can be gleaned from the evidence of the prosecution witnesses are that the deceased Mrs. Cecilia Ogbonna lived in a neighbourhood with the mother of the 1st and 2nd Appellants Mrs. Ifeoma Okereke. A common wall separated the house of both women as they were married into the same family.

Before the death of the deceased, there existed an unresolved dispute between the two women and there were threats from Mrs. Ifeoma Okereke to the deceased. The PW1 testified that the mother of the 1st and 2nd Appellants accused the deceased of having killed her dog and accused her (the deceased) that she would die the way the dog died. In her further testimony, she stated that one day as she was coming back from market, she heard Cecilia Ogbonna shouting that her electric wire had been cut and approaching the place saw Uzoma Okereke (1st Appellant) and his mother who said to her son “can’t you use a stick and break Cecilia’s head for me?”

In the early hours of 29/11/2005, PW1 went to the house of the deceased and saw the stapple to her door locked but no padlock on it. She opened the door and saw the deceased with multiple injuries. When she inquired the cause of the injuries, the deceased said it was the Appellants who inflicted the injury on her which later caused her death.

The Appellants on the other hand denied inflicting any wound on the deceased and claimed that there was an armed robbery incident in the early hours of 30th November, 2005 and that the deceased died from wounds sustained from the armed robbers.

The prosecution called Seven (7) witnesses in proof of their case and the defence called five (5) witnesses and thereafter Counsel filed written addresses. The Learned trial Judge in a considered judgment delivered on the 31st day of March, 2009 found for the prosecution and convicted the Appellants and sentenced them to death by hanging.

It is against the said judgment that the Appellants appealed before us upon the following four Grounds of Appeal, vide a Notice and Grounds of Appeal filed on 8th day of April, 2009 to wit:

Ground One:

Misdirection in law and facts

The Honourable Trial Judge misdirected himself in law and fact when he held that the Deceased died on 4/12/2005.

Ground Two:

Misdirection in law and fact.

The Honourable trial Judge misdirected himself in law and fact when he held that there was no robbery attack on the night of 29/1/2005 in the deceased home and its premises.