[1964]DLSC1910 • November 6, 1964 • Supreme Court •
IDRISU GONJA vs. THE STATE
The appellant was convicted of murder for stabbing the deceased, Mama Vagala, with a dagger found at the scene. The incident occurred at night in Sawla, Northern Region. The prosecution's key witness was a woman who was awakened by noise and saw the appellant leaving the deceased's room after the stabbing. The post-mortem revealed fatal cuts consistent with a double-edged dagger. The appellant claimed ownership of the dagger and gave an account of retrieving it from a mango tree and entering the victim's house to take some drinks, denying the stabbing and presenting an alibi at trial, which was found unconvincing.
read moreJUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.S.C. Ollennu J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. This appeal is against conviction of the appellant for murder upon a verdict of a jury. It raised some very important points of law. These have been forcefully argued on both sides. Although some of the points made are interesting, they are nevertheless irrelevant for the determination of the appeal; it would therefore be enough just to mention the most important of them in passing, and then proceed to the main points upon which the decision turned. The appellant, the victim of the crime, one Mama Vagala, and the principal witness in the case lived in Sawla, a town in the Northern Region of Ghana. The case for the prosecution is that on the night of 7 March 1962, at about 11 p.m. the first prosecution witness, a woman who traded in pito and akpeteshie drinks, was sleeping on a mat outside her room when she was awakened by a noise coming from the direction of her room indicating that some one had entered ...