ODO NWOBE V. THE STATE

UBAEZONU, J.C.A (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The appellant was charged, tried and convicted of murder by the Abakaliki High Court, presided over by Chukwumah Eneh J. (as he then was). The conviction was based on alleged confessional statement (Exhibits A and C) of the appellant. The facts of the case are simple and straightfoward. On the 20th August, 1989 the appellant returned from his town’s night market called Nwafor Okpoto. He opened the door of his house and reached out for a lantern. As he tried to light the lantern with a match stick, a person who turned out to be the deceased (Godwin Isah) came from behind, gripped the appellant and covered his mouth. As the appellant struggled with the deceased, the appellant was stabbed by the deceased. The appellant managed to extricate himself from the grip of the deceased, raised an alarm but nobody came in answer to his alarm he ran out of the house and ran to his grand-mother’s house. As the appellant tried to narrate his experi…