follow him go farm. Victor carry me for bicycle and we left. On the way I decided not to
go to farm again and I got back. I leave Victor for road and I go home with my cutlass.
When I came home I bathe and after bathing, I rub pomade. I began dey vex I carry
cutlass go cut my junior brother Osazuwa or Daddy for neck. I cut am 2 times. The boy
was coming out from my father's room that time. He fall down and died. My papa wife
Roseline Sunday dey house that time. Roseline was outside that time. When the boy don
die, I run away with the cutlass. I ran to Ogbohameya village and from there to Imosobar
village. At Imosobar village, I beg somebody to give me water, when they give me water,
they asked me what happened. I tell them say I kill my junior and they hole me. I go
show them where I keep the cutlass. They send police to come and catch me for the
village and they take me to Ologbo police station ..."
In his testimony in court given on 8th July, 1982, he stated that on the date of the
incident, he was having headache and pains on his ears and that as he was going to the
farm with Victor, his condition worsened hence he decided to return home. He continued:
"When. I got home, I reported to P.W.2 and others that I had to return because I
was not well. After sometimes I did not know what I was doing. I was in this condition
when I took up my cutlass and injured the deceased. I then escaped to Imosobar village
and surrendered myself. I told the people I met there that I did not know when I injured
my brother ...
I did not know what I was doing when I stabbed my brother. I felt as I was in a dream
with someone pursuing me and am running that something is on my way."
The learned trial Judge considered exhaustively whether the defence of insanity or
insane delusion availed the appellant. At p.33 of the record he stated that the evidence of
Dr. Malomo (P.W.5), which he accepted, established beyond doubt that the appellant
suffered from no mental disease. In his medical report on the appellant (exhibit A) P.W.5,
a consultant psychiatrist had stated inter alia:
"On examination the only complaint since he came into prison over a year ago has
been occasional dizziness. His orientation as to time, place and person is intact. His flow
of speech is normal and rational. Emotional reaction to his present predicament is as
expected as it is characterized by regret and poorly coordinated lies. There is nothing to
suggest presence of insane delusion or any other type of abnormal experience. He is fully
aware of the nature and gravity of the alleged offence."
Learned counsel to the appellant had contended that P.W.5 did not examine the
appellant immediately before or after the commission of the offence to ascertain his
medical condition at the relevant time. But the report of P.W.5 quoted above reveals that
the observation on the appellant started when he was admitted into the psychiatric
hospital's wing of the prison about the time he was charged to court. In determining the
defence of insanity, the trial Judge is enjoined to take into consideration any admissible
medical evidence and the whole of the facts and the surrounding circumstances of the
case which will include the nature of the killing, the conduct of the accused before, at the
time as well as after the killing and any history of mental abnormality: see Ishola Karimu
v. State (1989) 1 NWLR (Pt.96) 124, (1989) 1 SC 121 at 139.
In my view, the evidence of P.W.5 is admissible and credible and the learned trial
Judge was justified in placing reliance on it. Besides, there was ample evidence other than
the evidence of P.W.5 to justify the inference that the appellant was sane at the time the
offence was committed. The evidence of P.W.2 who described the conduct of the
appellant in hiding himself and escaping through the window after killing the deceased
and his coherent account of the incident which the appellant narrated to the villages and