IDDI DAGOMBA vs. THE STATE

Van Lare, J.S.C. delivered the Judgment of the court. We are of the opinion that in this appeal the learned trial judge did not adequately consider the question of matters of extreme provocation to which the prosecution witnesses have testified. The learned judge disbelieving the story of the appellant that he had the weapon on him at the time of the violent assault and battery committed on him by the deceased, failed to consider adequately the question of the effect of provocation on the prisoner when, as he found, the prisoner went to his house and fetched the knife. The judge has omitted to find that the prisoner had cooled down or that at the time the prisoner fetched the knife from his house he had murderous intent. We think, however, that on the evidence as a whole the prisoner might have been still labouring under the violent and extreme provocation caused him by the deceased and that when he went out to attack the deceased, he was still deprived of the power of self-control....