3PLR – ISEYEN AKPAN V. THE QUEEN
POLICY, PRACTICE AND PUBLISHING, LAW REPORTS 3PLR
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ISEYEN AKPAN
V.
THE QUEEN
FEDERAL SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA
F. S. C. 313/1962
19TH OCTOBER, 1962.
3PLR/1962/24 (FSC)
OTHER CITATIONS
BEFORE THEIR LORDSHIPS
SIR LIONEL BRETT, F.J. (Presided and Read the Judgment of the Court)
JOHN IDOWU CONRAD TAYLOR, F.J.
SIR VAHE BAIRAMIAN, F.J.
REPRESENTATION
- A. COLE – for the Appellant.
- I. EMEMBOLU, Senior Crown Counsel – for the Respondent.
MAIN ISSUES
CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE: – Murder – Proof – Eye witness accounts – Whether absence of motive is immaterial – How treated
CHILDREN AND WOMEN LAW: Women and Security – Security of neighbourhood and rural communities – Woman murdered by matchete wielding assailants who pursued her brother to their family house – Allegation that appellant/killer was ‘collecting’ human heads for certain purposes – Attitude of court thereto
MAIN JUDGMENT
BRETT, F.J. (Delivering the Judgment of the Court):
The appellant was convicted in the High Court of Eastern Nigeria on a charge of murder. The evidence was that he and another man, who has not been identified, appeared from the bush on each side of a road leading from Umudike to Okwe where a certain Iroha Ututu was pushing his bicycle up a hill and endeavoured to attack him with matchetes. Iroha Ututu shouted and ran away and Johnson Onwuikpe, who had observed what happened from the top of a tree where he was tapping palm wine, also shouted. Iroha Ututu ran behind his house and his sister, Nweke Onwunyiriuwa, came out of the house, whereupon the appellant struck her several blows with a matchet, inflicting injuries of which she died the same day.
The appellant, still carrying his matchet, made off along the tarred road with some people in front running away from him and others behind chasing him. A car came along the road in which was Police Constable Emenike Ogbonna, who succeeded in disarming and arresting the appellant.
The appellant gave his evidence in Ibibio, whereas those of the prosecution witnesses who did not speak English, spoke Ibo. In the statement which the accused made under caution after his arrest, and in his evidence at the trial, he said that he and his companion were threatened by a crowd shouting “Here are the Ibibio people – kill them”. He ran away and was, in effect, saved by the police officer in the car. He denied killing a woman or seeing an injured woman and he offered no explanation of the blood stains on his matchete. The trial Judge disbelieved and convicted him and Mr. Cole found no grounds for submitting that the Judge was wrong.
There was a certain suggestion that the appellant was collecting human heads for some purpose, but we agree with the trial Judge that this was far from proved. In any case, the absence of any established motive is immaterial where the facts are clear without it, and the appeal was dismissed.
TAYLOR, F.J.: I concur.
BAIRAMIAN, F.J.: I concur.
Appeal dismissed
