Judgment
ABBA BELLO MOHAMMED, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The Appellant herein was arraigned as 4th defendant along with 5 other defendants before the High Court of Ogun State in a five count Charge for the offences of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery, contrary to Section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap. R11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
At the end of the trial, the Appellant was convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery as charged in counts 1, 2 and 3 by the trial Court and sentenced to death by hanging. The judgment of the trial Court delivered on 24th August, 2020 is at pages 85–133 of the Record of Appeal. Dissatisfied with the said judgment of the trial Court, the Appellant has appealed to this Court vide a Notice of Appeal filed on 11th September, 2020. The Notice of Appeal is at pages 136–137 of the Record of Appeal.
However, the extant Notice of Appeal is the Amended Notice of Appeal filed on 30th March, 2021 and deemed properly filed by this Court on 2nd of November, 2021. The Record of Appeal was duly transmitted to this Court on the 27th of October, 2020. The Appellant’s Brief of Argument which was filed on the 30th of March, 2021 was similarly deemed properly filed on the 2nd of November, 2021. The record of this Court shows that the Respondent who was served with the Appellant’s Brief of Argument since the 1st of April, 2021 did not file any Brief of Argument in response to the appeal.
Again, on the 20th of January, 2022 when the appeal came up for hearing, the Respondent who was duly served with a hard copy of hearing notice on the 11th of January, 2022, through the Office of the Hon. Attorney-General of Ogun State was absent.
The learned Counsel for the Appellant, who had earlier filed an application under the old Court of Appeal Rules, 2016 praying the Court to hear the appeal on the Appellant’s Brief alone, withdrew the application and urged the Court to invoke its powers under the new Court of Appeal Rules, 2021 and proceed to hear the appeal on the Appellant’s Brief alone. Thereupon, this Court invoked Order 19, Rule 10(3) of the new Court of Appeal Rules, 2021 and proceeded to hear the appeal on the Appellant’s Brief of Argument alone. In the Appellant’s Brief of Argument adopted by R. U.
