"No person shall be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence; and no penalty shall be imposed for any criminal offence heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was committed." The italicised expression is clearly inconsistent with the imposition of a sentence of death on the appellant who at the time of the commission of the offence for which he was convicted, had not attained the age of seventeen years. In Ikpasa v. Bendel State (1981) 9 S.C.7 at p. 15. Sir Udo Udoma JSC, pointed out in his characteristic lucidity that the provisions of section 33(8) of the Constitution were intended, "to prevent the imposition of a heavier punishment for an offence which at the time of its commission could only attract a light punishment..." Thus in this case on the evidence that appellant was less than seventeen years old at the time of the commission of the offence, the sentence of death imposed will definitely be a heavier punishment for the offence at the time of its commission, and accordingly an infringement of the provision of section 33(8) of the Constitution 1979. I hold therefore that the trial Judge was wrong to have held that appellant was more than 17 years old at the time of the commission of the offence of murder and therefore liable to a sentence of death on conviction. The Court of Appeal was accordingly wrong to affirm the conviction. The above are my reasons for allowing the appeal against sentence. A. G. O. AGBAJE, J.S.C.: On 16th June, 1988 I allowed the appellant's appeal on the issue of sentence. I indicated then that I would give fuller reasons for my judgment on 16th September, 1988. I now proceed to give them. The appellant and 6 others were charged in an Owo High Court, Ondo State, with the murder of one Dapo Awobayokun on 20/12/83. He and 2 others were convicted of the offence on 2617/85 and sentenced to death. They appealed against their convictions and sentences to the Court of Appeal, Benin Division. The appeal of the other appellants succeeded but that of the appellant failed. So his conviction and sentence were confirmed in that court. This is a further appeal by the appellant against his conviction and sentence. In this court counsel for the appellant did not contest the conviction of the appellant. It is the sentence of death which was passed on the appellant that was attacked by counsel. It is his submission that the sentence was wrong and for the following reasons. In the foreground of counsel's arguments is the submission based on Section 33(8) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979 and the decision of this court in Godwin Ikpasa v. Bendel State (1981)9 S.C.7 at is interpreting the section that no penalty can lawfully be imposed for any criminal offence heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was committed. This submission in my judgment is well founded. Counsel then referred to the time the offence was committed which was on 20th December 1983. Counsel then went on to submit that at that time the appellant had not attained the age of 17 years. So, counsel continued, because of the provisions of section 368(3) of the Criminal Procedure Law of Western Nigeria 1959 applicable in Ondo State and which say:"Where an offender who in the opinion of the Court has not attained the age of seventeen years is