THE QUEEN V. UMARU BANGAZA AND ANOR

BRETT, FJ (Delivering the Judgment of the Court):

On the 15th January, we dismissed these appeals and we now state our reasons

The appellants were convicted in the High Court of the Northern Region of the murder of one Yaya Bangaza. There was clear evidence, which the Judge accepted, that they committed a deliberate assault on the deceased with heavy sticks, and with intent to do him grievous harm by way of retaliation for an assault committed by his children on their younger brother. On this finding of fact the conviction for murder were entirely justified.

The murder was committed in November 1950 and immediately after it the appellants ran away to somewhere in Bornu. They surrendered themselves early in 1959 and were tried in December 1959. In the course of his judgment Reed, J., considered the possibility that at the time of the murder they had been “boys” and came to the conclusion that they had at least reached the age of criminal responsibility, which on the evidence in this case …