COKER, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The appellant was charged with the murder, contrary to section 319(1) of the Criminal Code (cap. 28 Laws of Eastern Nigeria, 1959), of one Peter Ani. He was tried by Agbakoba J. in the High Court, Enugu, convicted of the offence as charged and sentenced to death. He has now appealed to this court and the substance of his complaint is that there was no evidence of the cause of death and that it was therefore not shown that Peter Ani had died at the hands of the appellant.
The facts of the case as put forward by the prosecution are simple. The appellant was one of a number of guests who had been invited to a marriage feast by one Gabriel Ude in the evening of the 8th March, 1969, at the Iva Valley Hall.
Apart from the appellant and the other guests there was also present at the feast one Nathaniel Ozoelo who was charged on the same information as the appellant with the murder of Peter Ani. Nathaniel Ozoelo was however discharged and acqui…