Judgment
AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment) : The Appellant, who allegedly caused the death of one “Hassan Ismail by using a cutlass and inflicted a serious cut on his thigh”, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death by the Sokoto State High Court for the offence of culpable homicide punishable with death.
On appeal, however, the Court of Appeal reversed the trial Court’s decision, and reduced his sentence to 10-years imprisonment for culpable homicide NOT punishable with death, and the Appellant has now appealed to this Court with a Notice of Appeal containing two Grounds of Appeal.
He distilled two Issues for Determination from the two Grounds of Appeal in his Brief of Argument, however, the Respondent objected to the issues formulated by the Appellant from the Grounds of Appeal. It submitted that Ground 2 is an omnibus ground of appeal, which is a general ground that contends that the decision in question, is against the weight of evidence; that Issue 1 cannot arise from Ground 2, since an omnibus ground cannot give rise to an issue raising specific points of law, citing Calabar East Co-op. V. Ikot (1999) 14 NWLR (Pt. 638) 225, Henkel Chem. Ltd V. A.G.
Ferrero (2003) 4 NWLR (Pt. 810) 306; and an omnibus ground cannot be used to challenge specific findings of fact or law or finding on a document, citingNdiwe V. Okocha (1992) 7 NWLR (Pt. 252) 129, Abdullahi V. Oba (1998) 6 NWLR (Pt. 554) 420, Akinlagun V. Oshoboja (2006) 5 SC (Pt. II) 100, Osolu V. Osolu (2003) 6 SC (Pt. I) 1.
It further submitted that since Ground 1 is challenging the finding of the Court of Appeal, that the Prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt by circumstantial evidence, and his Issue 2 questions whether the defence of self-defence did not avail the Appellant so as to entitle him to be discharged and acquitted, there is no correlation between the said Ground 1 of the Grounds of Appeal and his Issue 2, therefore, the said Ground 1 cannot give rise to Issue 2 distilled by him.
It is its contention that the two Issues formulated by the Appellant are incompetent and it, therefore, urged the Court to dismiss the appeal.
The Appellant did not file a Reply Brief, but Respondent raised a vital question – what is the Issue(s) for Determination in this appeal? It is an elementary principle that grounds of appeal arise from the ratio decidendi of the decision appealed against and the issues formulated for the determination of the appeal, arise from the grounds of appeal, which emanated from the decision appealed against - see Ibigbami & Anor V. Military Governor, Ekiti State (2004) 4 NWLR (Pt. 863) SC.
