Appeal Court
24th April, 1940. Appeal from
conviction by High Court.
Murder-Accomplice--Corroboration
witness set out with accused to
execute a common purpose part of
which 'was the murder of
deceased though it was not part
of the plan that he should take
a share in the actual murder and
he did not do so.
Held: The witness was in law
equally guilty and was an
accomplice but there was
corroboration in the evidence of
a witness who testified that he
saw the accused close to the
house of the deceased earlier on
the evening of the murder.
R. v. Mullins 3 Cox
526 followed.
The
facts of the case are
sufficiently set out in the
judgment.
C. N. S. Pollard for
Crown.
W. Wells Palmer for
Appellants.
The
following joint judgment was
delivered :
KINGDON, CJ., NIGERIA, PETRIDES,
C.J. GOLD COAST AND GRAHAM PAUL,
C.J., SIERRA LEONE.
In this case the four Appellants
were convicted in the High Court
of the Enugu-Onitsha Division of
the murder of a woman named
Agwanma Akajuba and sentenced to
death. The principal evidence
against them was that of a man
named Joseph, and that evidence
clearly shows .the crime to have
been committed by the. four
accused.
The learned Trial Judge believed
his evidence, but held them to
be an accomplice, and so looked
for corroboration of his
evidence before convicting the
accused.
As to whether or not Joseph was
an accomplice, we agree with the
Trial Judge that he was, and
disagree with the submission
made to us by Counsel on behalf
of the Crown that he was not.
According to his own evidence
Joseph set cut with the four
accused to execute a common
purpose part of which was the
murder of the woman Agwanma
Akajuba, and although it was not
part of the plan that he should
take a hand 111 the actual
murder and he did not in fact do
so, he would be held in law
equally guilty with the others
of the murder .. The appeal to
this Court is based
substantially on the submission
that Joseph's evidence was
uncorroborated"-and so should
not have been acted upon.