Adamawa State High Court sitting in Yola, on Tuesday discharged and acquitted a 42 year old, Haruna Caleb who was accused of killing one Adamu Sakaite of Mamre village in Mubi south Local Government Area.
The Court freed the accused for lack of proof of recorded confessional statement and lack of eye witness or witnesses account linking the defendant to the scene of the act.
Haruna Caleb was standing trial before Honourable Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri's High Court on one count charge of culpable homicide contrary to section 221(a) of the Penal Code Law cap 98 Laws of Adamawa State 1997 and punishable under same.
The 42 year old farmer and father of 2 was said to have caused the death of Sakaite of the same Mamre village in Mugulvu Development Area, Mubi South LGA, by stabbing him with a knife on jaw down to the neck on the 13th October, 2016.
He was said to have fought with the deceased over a spanner as a result of which the accused/defendant stabbed the victim with a knife which led to his death on the spot.
Haruna Caleb was later apprehended in connection to the killing by the Police in Mugulvu and arraigned on a count charge to which he pleaded not guilty to the commission of the alleged offence.
In an effort to obtain conviction, the prosecution witness who investigated the matter, told the Court that he took the accused person's confessional statement after a word of caution, and then transferred the case to Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Yola for further investigation but failed to tender the confessional statement which he said he had recorded.
Likewise, the prosecution could not be able produce eye witness or witnesses account to link the accused to the scene of the incident or tender credible evidence to secure the conviction of the suspect.
Delivering its judgment on Tuesday, the court presided over by Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri, declared that non production of the confessional statement of the defendant given at the Mugulvu Police Station, as confirmed by the IPO who effected the defendant's arrest is so fatal to the prosecution case.
Justice Abdul-Azeez stated that it is settled in law that all statements made by a defendant in a criminal trial be it confessionary or exculpatory, must be tendered by the police officer or other security officer that recorded or witnessed its recording.
According to him, the prosecution has failed to use the two methods for proving a case: by the testimony or testimonies of eye witness or witnesses, through voluntary confessional statement of an accused person and circumstantial evidence.
He said that the prosecution has no eye witness or a reliable /credible evidence to incriminate the accused, but has resorted to recycling on the purported confessional statement of the accused, and that it has failed to use the two methods of proof of the offence.
He therefore pronounced the accused/defendant not guilty of the charge alleged against him, and further discharged and acquitted him.
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