JOSEPH SHAGBAOR IKYEGH, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): ?The appeal emerged from the decision of the High Court of Justice of Lagos State (the Court below) whereby the Court below convicted and sentenced the appellant to ten (10) years in prison in aggregate for the offences of conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence, obtaining money by false pretence, forgery and uttering false document.
The case against the appellant at the Court below was presented through eleven (11) witnesses and seventy-one (71) documentary Exhibits, whilst the appellant tendered eight (8) documentary Exhibits through the witnesses called by the respondent and rested his case on the evidence for the respondent. The mainstay of the evidence against the appellant was that the appellant acted in league with other persons and obtained various sums of money totaling $397,800 from one Mr. Puchstein, a German, on the pretext that Mr. Puchsteins company, Deramic Company, would be awarded a contract to supp…