M. L. UWAIS, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal from the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal, affirming the conviction of the appellant by the Rivers State High Court, Bori, on a charge of murder. When the appeal came before us on 9th October, 1980, we dismissed it. The reasons for our doing so will now be given.
The allegation made by the prosecution at the trial before the High Court was that the appellant killed the deceased - a woman who had been living with him, when he found her lying on the bed of another man. There was no eye-witness to the killing but the appellant made a confessional statement to the police after his arrest in which he admitted killing her with a matchet and he gave full account of how the incident came about.
At the time of making the confessional statement the appellant spoke in his vernacular and a translation was simultaneously made into English before the statement was taken down in writing. When the appellant gave evidence …