Man To Die For Killing A Fulani Man

By Tobi Soniyi

The Supreme Court has affirmed the death sentence handed out
to a farmer and father of five, James Afolabi, by the Kogi State
High Court and the Court of Appeal.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, a five-man panel of
the apex court held that there was no basis to disturb the
concurrent finding of the trial and lower courts in their previous
judgments.

Afolabi, from Kogi State, was convicted and sentenced to death
by the Kogi State High Court, Lokoja in 2012 having been found
guilty for the murder of a Fulani man, Abubakar Mohammed.
The court relied on Afolabi’s confessional statement to the
police, where he claimed to have shot Mohammed on the chest
for straying into his (Afolabi’s) yam and cassava farm on
February 27, 2009.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja on March 22, 2012 dismissed his
appeal and upheld the decision of the trial court, a decision he
appealed to the Supreme Court.

On Friday, Justice John Inyang Okoro, in the lead judgment in the
appeal marked: SC/181/2012, held that although the prosecution
could not produce an eye witness at trial, it provided sufficient
evidence, through its witnesses, “which gave vent to the
confession of the appellant.

“And in any case, this court held in Mohammed v State (2007) 11
NWLR (pt 1045) 303 at 230 paragraph F that where an accused
person confesses to a crime, in the absence of an eye witness
of the killing, he can be convicted on his confession alone.
“For all I have said, I hold a strong view that the court below was
on a strong wicket when it upheld the conviction and sentencing
of the appellant upon reliance on his confessional statements,” he
said.

Justice Okoro also sided with the lower court in concluding that
the intention of the appellant was to kill the victim.
“In the instant case, the appellant states emphatically, in Exhibit D
(confessional statement), adjudged to have been freely and
voluntarily made, that he aimed his gun at the chest of the
deceased at close range and shot him.
“It was his further evidence that the deceased fell down and could
not move again. At that point, he ran to the village head and
reported that he had killed a man.

“In the circumstance, did he intend to kill the man? I had earlier
stated in this judgment that a person is taken to intend that
natural and probable consequences of his act.

“So, when the appellant aimed his gun at the chest of the
deceased and shot it, did he intend to keep him alive? I do not
think so. At least he intended to cause him grievous bodily harm.
“And, in view of the force of a gunshot aimed at the heart, the
engine room of a man’s life, it can safely be concluded that the
appellant intends to kill the deceased on his action, the report he
made to the village head notwithstanding.


~Thisday