GALADIMA JSC (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This is an appeal against the affirmation of the conviction and sentence to death of the appellant by the Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division, in its judgment delivered on 26 May 2011.
The basic facts of this case, which led to the trial of the appellant for murder, borne out of the records are set out as follows: The appellant who had a strong sense of vocation of being a barber, was undergoing apprenticeship under his first cousin, one Timothy Abioro at Odogbolu, in Ogun State of Nigeria. By 19 July 2003, he became agitated and insisted on being taken home to join his parents at a village called Agada.
After much insistence, Timothy Abioro obliged him and took him to the village on 22 July 2003. Shortly after their arrival, the appellant displayed strange behaviour. He was seen brandishing a cutlass and this act forced people in the village to run helter skelter for safety, while some tried to wrest the cutlass from the appellant. In the pro…