Yisa Abdulrahman V. The State (2018)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

MUSA DATTIJO MUHAMMAD, J.S.C.

This appeal is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting at Akure, hereinafter referred to as the lower Court, upholding the conviction of the appellant by the Ondo State High Court, hereinafter referred to as the trial Court, for the offence of armed robbery contrary to and punishable under Section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act CAP RI vol. 14 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. The lower Court’s judgment being appealed against was delivered on the 12th day of May, 2015 and the trial Court’s decision it upholds was delivered on 24th July, 2013.

The appellant had pleaded not guilty to the charge he had been arraigned for. To prove its case, the prosecution called three witnesses: PWI is Kolawole Ogunleye the victim of the crime; PW2, the painter to whom the appellant took the vehicle he robbed PWI for same to be differently painted and PW3 the police officer who investigated the case against the appellant. Four Exhibits, B, C, E and F were tendered by the prosecution.

1

The appellant, DW1, testified in person with his father, DW2, further testifying for him. He tendered three Exhibits A, D1 and D2.

The case of the prosecution is that on the 23rd October, 2009 the appellant, by the Fiwasaye Girls Grammar School Area, Akure, engaged the services of PWl, a taxi driver, to convey him and his eggs from lju/lta-ogbolu to Alagbaka Akure for three thousand naira. Off the main road and towards the spot where the eggs were stored, the appellant instructed PWI to stop the vehicle and hand over the key of the vehicle to him. Following PWI’s resistance, the appellant brought out a cutlass from his black nylon bag and macheted the former on the head at which point in time someone emerged from the bush and assisted the appellant to drive away the vehicle. Not long after PWI had reported the incident at the lju/tta Ogbolu police station, the appellant was arrested. Appellant’s confession led to the recovery of PWI’s taxi cab from a painter’s workshop in Okene, Kogi State. PWI identified the appellant at the Iju/Ita Ogbolu police station as the person who robbed him of his taxi cab on the 23rd October 2009.

2

Appellants case at trial is a flat denial of the armed robbery. Even though in Exhibit B, his extra judicial statement, he confessed to the robbery and furnished information leading to the recovery of PWI’s taxi cab from a painter’s workshop in Okene, he insisted at trial that on the 23rd October, 2009 he was away in Okene to attend to his health challenges.

At the close of trial, including final addresses of counsel, the learned trial judge, in a considered judgment delivered on 24th July, 2013, found the appellant guilty and sentenced him as charged. Dissatisfied, he appealed to the lower Court vide a Notice of Appeal containing two grounds filed on 2nd August, 2013. Appellant’s appeal was dismissed by the lower Court.

Still aggrieved, he has further appealed to this Court by his Notice filed on the 18th May, 2015 containing three grounds. The lone issue distilled from the three grounds of appeal, see paragraph 3.0, page 4 of the appellant’s brief of argument which was adopted and relied upon by F. Omotosho Esq., of counsel at the hearing of the appeal, reads: –

“Whether the Court of Appeal was right in affirming the findings of the trial Court that the defence of alibi was not established by the appellant and that

3

the contradiction and discrepancies in the extra judicial statement of PWI and his evidence are not material to cast doubt to the case of the prosecution.”

(Underlining supplied for emphasis).