In a similar situation which arose in the case of OGUDO VS THE STATE (Supra) where the learned trial
Judge had held that failure to tender the statement made by the accused at the 1st Police Station would
not have made any difference in the finding of the Court, the Supreme Court strongly disagreed. Fabiyi,
JSC had this to say:
???The Appellant said he made a statement at Birnin Gwari Police Station. The same was not tendered
during his trial. The prosecution has a duty to tender any statement made by an accused person during
the investigation of the offence with which he was charged whether or not it is in his favour. See
DANDARE VS THE STATE (1967) NMLR 56. This must be so in order to avoid the invocation of the
provision of Section 149 (1) (d) of the Evidence Act against the prosecution which failed to tender the
vital statement??? The above view, with due diffidence, flies in the face of my views as stated above.
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The statement must be tendered in the first instance before one can surmise difference it will have on
the finding of the trial Court???.
Similarly, the same Apex Court emphatically restated the law in the case of PEOPLE OF LAGOS STATE VS
UMARU (2014) ALL FWLR (PT. 737) 679 Per I.T. Muh???d. when he held:
??????What paragraph (d) of Section 149 (now Section 167 [d]) of the Evidence Act stipulates is that
where a party claims to have evidence that goes to show the existence of a document in proof of his
case, the document should be tendered. Where such evidence could be produced but it is not produced,
it is presumed to be against the interest of the party withholding it. See EBOH VS PROGRESSIVE
INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED (1987) 2 QLRN 167; GEORGE VS THE STATE (2009) 1 NWLR (PART
1122)."
???As in the aforestated decided authorities and the clear provision of Section 167 (d) of the Evidence
Act, the prosecution who admitted that the Appellant???s first statement made at the Police Station,
Bamaina, was in his case file ought to have tendered same in evidence whether it was
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