TOM SHAIBU YAKUBU, J.C.A.(Delivering the Leading Judgment):The appellant, along with eight other accused persons were convicted of the offence of the murder of one Nze Dominic Duru on 3rd March, 2005 at Amaudara Izombe in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State. The appellant and his co-convicts were each sentenced to death by hanging, vide the judgment of C.M.I. Egole, J., delivered on 13th June, 2013. The appellant, not unnaturally, was piqued by that decision and so he appealed against it to this Court. The appeal was anchored on fifteen (15) grounds. The appellant was the 5th accused person at the trial.
On the 3rd March, 2005, Mr. James Ugwuoha Duru, (the 1st Accused) in this matter, Sussana Duru (6th Accused) and Mathias Ohazuruike (8th Accused) all of Amaudara Izombe in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State together went to the house of the deceased, Nze Dominic Duru of the same address early in the morning to remind him of the apparent earlier arrangement to visit their fam…