NJOKU vs. THE STATE [1965]DLSC10242

Date	1965-05-21
Suit No.	G L R 394 - 399
Citation No.	[1965]DLSC10242

MILLS-ODOI

OLLENNU

SIRIBOE J.S.C.

ASARE FOR THE APPELLANT.

K. A. SEKYI STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE RESPONDENT.

[1965]DLSC10242
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >NJOKU<o:p></o:p>vs.<o:p></o:p>THE STATE<o:p></o:p>[SUPREME
COURT, ACCRA]<o:p></o:p><div style="border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-bottom-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">

</div>COUNSEL:<o:p></o:p>ASARE FOR THE APPELLANT.<o:p></o:p><div style="border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-bottom-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">

K. A. SEKYI, STATE
ATTORNEY, FOR THE RESPONDENT.<o:p></o:p>

</div>CORAM:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <o:p></o:p><div style="border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-bottom-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">

MILLS-ODOI, OLLENNU
AND SIRIBOE J.S.C.<o:p></o:p>

</div>&nbsp;<div style="border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-bottom-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">

JUDGMENT<o:p></o:p>

</div>&nbsp;MILLS-ODOI
J.S.C.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;Mills-Odoi J.S.C. delivered the judgment of
the court. The appellant was convicted by a jury at the Criminal Session of the
High Court at Sekondi on 15 June 1964, for the murder of one Joseph Alabi on 4
January 1964.&nbsp; He raised as a defence the
issue of the state of his mind at the crucial moment when he was alleged to
have committed the felonious homicide which was entirely motiveless. No witness
knew of any previous quarrel or misunderstanding between him and the deceased
and the story consistently told by him did not fit into the known facts.&nbsp; The only point for decision in this appeal,
therefore, is whether the verdict should have been one of guilty of murder but
insane.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;&nbsp;The facts which are not in dispute are as
follows:&nbsp; On 2 January 1964, for no reason
which could be suggested, the appellant ran amok.&nbsp; He inflicted ghastly wounds on the deceased
who, a few moments prior to this incident, was pounding fufu with his wife and
children.&nbsp; He also caused fatal wounds to
a school teacher and chased other people in the village where they lived with
the cutlass which he had used in inflicting the wounds on the deceased.&nbsp; None of the villagers was able to overpower
him.&nbsp; However, on the same day, he went
on his own to the police station at Tarkwa and, on the strength of a report
which he made to the police, he was arrested and placed in a cell.&nbsp; Two days later (i.e. on 4 January 1964) the
deceased died.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;In his cautioned statement to the police, the
appellant admitted killing the deceased and he gave reasons for it.&nbsp; But his story conveyed the impression that he
was living in a world entirely of his own.&nbsp;
He told the police at Tarkwa that the deceased had introduced Samuel
Oke, the first prosecution witness, to him as a native doctor, whereas in fact
Samuel Oke and the appellant had worked together as employees of the
Amalgamated Banket Area Mines at Tarkwa.&nbsp;
His statement to the police, exhibit A, which formed part of the case
for the prosecution, contains the following passages:<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;"During September 1963, Samuel Oke
informed me that he has a medicine with which I can protect myself and my
family.&nbsp; At first I was not willing for
the promise but Oke insisted that I should have it.&nbsp; He took the names of my wife, two children
and my father together with my own name and later brought the medicine to
me.&nbsp; After some few days I realised that
the medicine (juju) was not good for me.&nbsp;
In the night I could not sleep and when I go to work I do not feel
alright.&nbsp; I reported the condition to
Joseph Alabi.&nbsp; What Alabi told me in reply
was that I have been eaten up already and that I am already done.&nbsp; I next appealed to Teacher Oguntunde to see
and save the situation but he also told me that no one should mind me because I
am dead already.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;Now on 29 December 1963 being Sunday, I received
a letter from home reporting to me that my wife together with one of my
children and also my father whose names were collected by Oke in preparing the
medicine were dead.&nbsp; Because of this sad
news, I did not go to work the next day being Monday, 30 December 1963.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;In the morning of 2 January 1964 being
Thursday I returned home from town after buying some food.&nbsp; I met Joseph Alabi and Teacher Oguntunde in
front of Alabi's room.&nbsp; When I was about
[p.396] to enter my room, Alabi said, the last peg is also fallen and as such
as I am walking, I am almost dead and by 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. I will be no more
in existence.&nbsp; The time was then 7.35
a.m. This threat so provoked me that I entered my room and drew a cutlass to deal
with these dangerous men.&nbsp; When I came
with the cutlass Alabi looked at me up and down and told me that my cutlass
cannot harm him.&nbsp; I then jumped on him
and gave him some slashes with the cutlass and he managed to escape.&nbsp; Teacher Oguntunde then held me from my back
and as we were struggling the cutlass fell from my hands.&nbsp; It wounded Teacher Oguntunde on the left
foot.&nbsp; He succeeded in taking the cutlass
and I also tried and seized it from him and gave him a blow with the cutlass on
his chest and he fell down.&nbsp; I left to
the Police station to report.&nbsp; It was Oke
I was very much after but I missed him."<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;The story told by the appellant (in exhibit
A) compelled the police at Tarkwa to conduct a thorough investigation into the
matter, the result of which was given by the detective police inspector, John
Kiplin Nsia, the thirteenth prosecution witness, in his evidence at the trial
in the following words, "As a result of the statement, exhibit A, I made
investigations among the lbo communities at Atuabo, Abosso and Tarkwa town but
I had no one to con</main>