ADIELE NDUBUISI V. THE STATE

AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The Appellant is one of the "Bakassi Boys" leaders and members of the Abia State Vigilante Group known as Bakassi., who were convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of two persons, and this Appeal turns on the issue of whether the conviction for murder should be substituted with conviction for manslaughter.

The facts as established at the Abia State High Court is that on 9/7/1999, the Appellant and three other Bakassi Boys, namely, Ezeji Oguikpe, Emmanuel Eze and Stanley Azogu, were invited from Aba, where the said Group is based to Government House, Umuahia by Ndukwe Okereke, a State Security Service Official.

At the Government House, they met the then Secretary to the State Government. Dr. Elekwachi Nwaogbo, who instructed the S.S.S. official, Ndukwe Okereke, to take them, Bakassi Boys to the Safari Restaurant at Umuahia, where they confronted the people they met with dangerous weapons, including cutlasses, knives an…