SOLANKE V. AJIBOLA

• Pages: 40-46

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NIGERIAN SUPREME COURT CASES

[1968] N.S.C.C.

person if he wished to do so. We do not find

it

necessary, as we have indicated,

to determine this issue as in our view there was evidence here, which the learned

trial judge accepted, of the eighth accused attacking the deceased with an axe and

of his death at the spot so that the medical evidence does not seem to us to be

as vital as it did to the learned trial judge and the conviction can be sustained

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5

without it.

The appellant did not appear before us but he submitted a lengthy written ar-

gument the main purport of which was that the learned trial judge was wrong not

to believe his alibi, wrong anyway to convict the eighth accused when he acquitted

all the others, and wrong to rely on the medical report as establishing that the eighth

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accused killed the deceased. We have already dealt with the issue of the medical

report and so far as the issue of alibi was concerned we do not see that it was

shown that the learned trial judge was wrong to disbelieve it. Whilst the eighth ac-

cused may consider it unfair that he alone of those who attacked the deceased

should be convicted, this in no way alters his criminal liability once it is established

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15

that he did commit the offence and in our judgment the case against him was clear-

ly made out.

Finally, the eighth accused sought leave to appeal against his sentence of ten

years imprisonment as being excessive but as in our view he might well have been

charged and convicted of culpable homicide punishable with death on the estab-

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20

lished facts, we do not consider that ten years imprisonment was, in the circum-

stances, in any way excessive.

The application for leave to appeal is accordingly refused.

Application refused.

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SOLANKE V. AJIBOLA

30

AKINTUNDE BANJOKO SOLANKE

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APPELLANT

V

AUGUSTINE 0. AJIBOLA

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RESPONDENT

SUIT NO. SC 96/67

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35

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

BRETT,

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J.S.C.

COKER,

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J.S.C.

LEWIS,

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J.S.C.

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16th February, 1968.

Courts - High Court - Application for adjournment of proceedings - Refusal -

Discretion of High Court Judge - Jurisdiction of Supreme Court to review.

45

ISSUE:

1. Whether an appeal court can review the exercise of a trial Judge's discretion

in granting adjournments of proceedings.

FACTS:

The plaintiff sued the defendant for damages for trespass to land situate at Ig-

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50

bobi, Lagos, for recovery of possession, and an injunction to restrain the defend-

ant and his servants from continuing to trespass on the land. Pleadings were

ordered and filed, and hearing of the action commenced on the 15th of January,

1963. As a result of a series of adjournments, mainly at the instance of the de-