MACDONALD ITA OKON V. THE STATE

JOSEPH OLUBUNMI KAYODE OYEWOLE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal against the judgment of the High Court of Cross River State sitting in Calabar delivered on the 2nd December, 2014 by MICHAEL EDEM J. convicting the Appellant for armed robbery and sentencing him to death by hanging.

The Appellant and his co-accused had been arraigned before the trial Court on one count of armed robbery pursuant to Section 1 (1) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, to which they both pleaded not guilty.

At trial only the investigating police officer testified for the prosecution tendering the extra judicial confessional statements of the Appellant and his co-accused from which they resiled at trial. Objections were taken to the voluntariness of the said statements but they were eventually admitted in evidence after trial within trial. The said witness also tendered some items recovered in the course of the investigation while a couple of the recovered items were …