THE QUEEN V. UDO AKPAKPAN

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THE QUEEN V. UDO AKPAKPAN

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THE QUEEN V. UDO AKPAKPAN

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THE QUEEN

V

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UDO AKPAKPAN

FEDERAL SUPREME

FOSTER SUTTON,

JIBOWU,

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ABBOTT,

17th February, 1956.

COURT

F.C.J.

F.J.

Ag. F.J.

RESPONDENT

APPELLANT

SUIT NO. WACA 221/1955

Criminal Law - Murder - When provocation will reduce to manslaughter

Confession of adultery - Provocative words - Loss of self-control - Malice

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intention to kill.

ISSUES:

1.

Whether a confession of adultery without more is sufficient to reduce an offence

of murder to manslaughter.

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2. Under what circumstances will a defence of provocation reduce murder to

manslaughter.

FACTS:

The appellant admitted striking the deceased with a knife and causing her death;

but pleaded that she had offered such provocation as to reduce the offence to one

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of manslaughter. The appellant was convicted for the murder of his wife.

The case against the appellant depends on statements he made to various

people and his evidence at the trial. According to these the deceased confessed

to him that she had committed adultery and he formed the idea that this caused

the death of his daughter which occurred shortly before the confession was made.

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According to the appellant, the actual provocation pleaded, however, arose,

in that the deceased wrongly brought the daughter's corpse to his house, and that

when he remonstrated with her, she used filthy and offensive language to him

whereafter he lost his self-control and inflicted on her the injury which caused her

death.

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The trial Judge held that mere words alone are not sufficient provocation to re-

duce a charge of murder to manslaughter, and after reviewing the evidence found

that the appellant made up his mind to kill the deceased and deliberately did so.

HELD:

That the degree and method of violence used in this case were such as to pre-

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dude the court from bringing in a verdict of manslaughter.

OBITER:

1. The court expressed the opinion that in Nigeria, as is the position in England,

a confession of adultery without more is not sufficient to reduce an offence

which would otherwise be murder to manslaughter.

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2. On the question of provocative words the court stated that in the circumstances

prevailing in Nigeria (at the present stage of development i.e

1956),

if the case

is one in which it might fairly be taken that a reasonable person in consequence

of the provocative words used might be so rendered subject to passion or loss

of control as to be led to use violence with fatal results and if the person accused