TAJUDEEN ADISA. V. THE STATE

Issue:

The appellant and his co-accused were tried for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery and they were sentenced to death for the said offences by the Ogun State High Court. They appealed against their conviction and sentence to the Court of Appeal, Ibadan. The court held that the prosecution proved the first ingredient of the offence namely that there was a robbery. In considering the second ingredient - whether the robbery was armed robbery - the court said at page 198:- "As has thus been seen the use of cutlass and axe permeates the evidence not only of PW2 and PW3 but also the confessional statement of 1st appellant I think that it will be right to say that whoever the robbers were, they were armed". Despite this finding the Court finally held that since the prosecution failed to tender the cutlass and the axe which were allegedly used in the armed robbery operation and no explanation was supplied for the failure to tender them, the armed robbery was not proved. On this basis the lower court set aside the conviction and sentence to death of the appellants for conspiracy and armed robbery but found them guilty of conspiracy and robbery simpliciter and sentenced them to 21 years imprisonment each without option of fine on each of the counts. The court ordered that the sentences should run concurrently. The appellant appealed on 5 grounds to the Supreme Court.