DANIEL IBANGA V.THE STATE

OBASEKI, J.S.C.(Delivering The Leading Judgment): This is a murder appeal. The only ground argued by counsel was substituted ground, which reads:

"that the Federal Court of Appeal erred in law in convicting the accused of (in confirming the conviction of the accused of) murder when on the (circumstances of the case) the evidence led, he ought to have been convicted of manslaughter".

In his submission, Shola Rhodes counsel for the appellant said that the adulterous association of the deceased with his (accused's) former wife was a continuing provocation which led to the appellant's attack on the deceased. He urged the court to consider the extremely volatile temper of the Abak people and hold that the association of the deceased and the former wife of the accused was sufficient provocation to reduce the offence of murder to manslaughter.

Quite properly, Miss Udom, the learned senior State Counsel, replied that the courts have never conceded to the Abak people the right to fly into a ra…