Judgment
CHIDI NWAOMA UWA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The appeal is against the judgment of the High Court of Adamawa State, presided over by Abdul-Azeez, J. (as he then was) delivered on February, 10, 2021 in case No. ADSY/16C/2017 (hereafter referred to as the trial Court) in which the Appellant was the 4th Defendant. The trial Court convicted the Appellant for the offences charged under counts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the information filed at the trial Court. It was alleged that count 1 was not specifically mentioned but, that the trial Court convicted the Appellant “as charged”.
It was made out that counts 1 – 3 bordered on conspiracy to commit armed robbery, while count 4 bordered on illegal possession of firearms. The background facts are that there were six defendants that stood trial over a five count information. The six defendants stood trial under counts 1 – 3, the 1st Defendant alone was charged under count 4 (Illegal Possession of Firearms) while the 6th defendant alone was charged under count 5 (Illegal Possession of Firearms). It was made out that the Appellant was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to counts 1 – 4 of the information.
It was alleged by the Respondent that the Appellant and five other Defendants committed two robberies, one on 29th August, 2015 and the other on 31st August, 2015. In proof of her case, the Respondent called eight witnesses, PW1 – PW8. The PW1 (Chief Uduma) testified that he was able to identify the Appellant 2nd and 5th Defendants in respect of the alleged robbery of 29th August, 2015.
It was made out that the PW2 (Fadana Baba) testified that he was informed that some robbers mounted a roadblock, he did not witness any robbery incident, PW4 (ASP Samuel Kaletipwa) was said to have recorded the alleged confessional statements of the 1st and 6th Defendants, while the PW5 (Abba Jabo) recorded the alleged confessional statements of the 2nd and 3rd Defendants.
The PW6 (Inspector Abdullahi Yakubu) recorded that the Appellant, the PW7 (Woman ASP Nora Micloth) recorded the alleged confessional statement of the 5th Defendant while the PW8 (Inspector Williams Joshua) is the Exhibit Keeper at the State CID, Yola. After a trial within trial conducted by the trial Court, the alleged confessions were tendered as follows:
