JOSHUA V. THE QUEEN

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JOSHUA V. THE QUEEN

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JOSHUA V. THE QUEEN

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GABRIEL SHOFOLAHAN JOSHUA

V

10 THE QUEEN

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

ADEMOLA,

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C.J.N.

TAYLOR,

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J.S.C.

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BAIRAMIAN,

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J.S.C.

9th January, 1964

Criminal Law - Evidence of witness

APPELLANT

RESPONDENT

SUIT NO. FSC 406/1963

contrary to his deposition

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Statement of

witness to police not produced - Evidence of contents.

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ISSUE:

1.

Whether a trial Court can convict an accused person on the evidence of a

perjured witness without more. Should a trial court accept contradictory

evidence and how much weight should the court attach to it.

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FACTS:

The defendant, a customary court president, was charged with demanding, and

with receiving, money to favour a litigant. One M.S. (the alleged go-between) when

first testifying before a magistrate, denied the alleged corruption; later after a pros-

ecution was begun against him for making a false statement to the Police, he tes-

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tified against the defendant. The trial judge treated M.S. and the litigant as

accomplices, gave himself the warning on accomplice evidence, found their evi-

dence to be true, and convicted the defendant.

After M.S. was re-examined, in answer to the trial judge he said there was no

difference between his original written statement to the Police and his evidence at

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the trial. That statement was not produced.

HELD:

The judge erred in receiving oral evidence on the contents of the written state-

ment; he should have disregarded

in toto

the evidence of M.S., who had com-

mitted perjury, as unreliable, and then asked himself whether there was enough

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other evidence for finding the appellant guilty; and as it was uncertain whether the

judge would have convicted on the litigant's evidence alone, the conviction would

be quashed.

CASES REFERRED TO IN JUDGMENT:

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I.

R.

v. Golder

(1960)1 W.L.R.1169; (1960) All E.R. 475; 45 Cr. App. R.123.

2.

R.

v. Atkinson

24 Cr. App. R. 123.

Chief F.R.A. Williams, Q.C.

(with him

Miss J.N. Ebube)

for Appellant.

C.O.O.

Bada, Senior State Counsel,

for Respondent.

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ADEMOLA, C.J.N.

(Delivering the Judgment of the Court): The appellant, who

at the material time was the president of the Grade B Customary Court at Ikare in

Ondo Province, was on the 13th day of September, 1963, convicted on two counts