OSHO. V. STATE

Issue:

The accused persons were alleged to have, on the 15th day of June, 2008, at Itutekpa in Olamaboro Local Government Area (LGA), conspired and robbed one Simon Ugwu in his residence, his wife and their daughter of various sums of money and other valuables. The 1st accused was allegedly arrested at the scene of the crime by one Simon Ugwu, the complainant. Others took to their heels. The 1st accused made statement that led to the arrest of the 2nd accused while others could not be traced. During arraignment, the two accused persons denied the charges against them. At the trial, the prosecution called one witness, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO). Each of the accused persons testified in his own defence and called no witness. Meanwhile, the Nigeria Prisons, Ankpa, where the two accused persons were on remand, wrote to the trial court intimating her of the state of health of the 2nd accused person, Sunday Awe, that he was HIV positive. The charge against him was then withdrawn by the state on health ground and he was accordingly discharged by the trial court. That made the 1st accused person to be the only one standing trial on the two count charge. During the trial, the accused was found to have made a free and voluntary confessional statement which he later retracted. At the conclusion of the hearing the learned trial judge was satisfied that the evidence of PW1 and confessional statement of the accused in Exhibit 'A' laid sound foundation to find the prosecution had proven the case of criminal conspiracy and armed robbery against the accused/appellant. The learned trial judge convicted and sentenced the accused to various terms of imprisonment with no option of fine.  Dissatisfied with the trial court's decision the accused/appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division. Having reviewed the proceedings of the trial court, the court below affirmed the decision of the trial court. Further dissatisfied, the appellant appealed to the Supreme Court.