THE STATE (COMPLAINANT)

v.

AKINGBADE GABRIEL (ACCUSED)

(1971) All N.L.R. 508

Division: High Court of Lagos

Date of Judgment: 14th July, 1971

Case Number: SUIT NO. IK/6C/71

Before: Odesanya, J.

Criminal Action.

HELD:

(1)     Corroborative evidence is evidence which shows not merely that the crime has been committed, but that it was committed by the accused.

(2)     Applying this test it was difficult to discover the necessary corroborative evidence in this case.

(3)     The girl's prompt report or complaint to her parents was certainly not the corroborative evidence.

(4)     The silence of the accused might be corroborative evidence but the law here is in a most fluid state and the balance of the known authorities did not persuade the court to follow the astonishingly few cases in which silence in circumstances such as in the present case was held to corroborate the evidence of the prosecutrix.

Accused discharged and acquitted.

Cases referred to:

Chief Odofin Bello v. The State, (1966) 1 All N.L.R. 223

R. v. Baskerville, (1916) 2 K.B. 658.

CRIMINAL ACTION.

SUIT NO. IK/6C/71.

Adetosoye (with him Oduneye) for the State.

Odesanya, J.:-The accused is charged on an information with Rape in that on 2nd December, 1970 at Mushin in the Ikeja Judicial Division he had unlawful carnal knowledge of the woman Rebecca Oyenuga Okusaga without her consent and contrary to s. 358 of the Criminal Code.

On 30th November, 1970, two days before the crime the prosecutrix, Rebecca Okusaga, P.W.1, a 20 year old girl accompanied her cousin Sunday Omotayo P.W.4 to the house of the brother of the accused. The accused and his brother are co-tenants at 10, Efon Alaye Street, Papa Ajao, Mushin. When Rebecca and her cousin were in the room of the brother of the accused the problem of finding a job for her was discussed. The accused who was in the room with them asked the girl to call on him three days later for some addresses of prospective employers. On 2nd December, 1970 she went to the room of the accused in the house at about 6.30 p.m. for the promised addresses. He was in and readily gave her four office addresses. He asked her to call the following day at his office at Messrs Taylor Woodrow Ltd. at Oshodi, Ikeja District. As she knelt down to say good-bye to him the accused, who had already locked the door, switched off the light. The unsuspecting girl made an unsuccessful dash for the door. The accused a well-built man forcibly carried the frail girl to his bed, pulled down her pants with their elastic waist bands and in spite of her scream and struggle had carnal knowledge of her. Her scream for help produced no intervention from any of the co-tenants of the accused. Having satisfied his passion the accused put on the light and opened the door after he and the weeping girl had made themselves respectable. She refused his offer of 5/- a veritable conscience money. He had deflowered the girl who until that day was a virgin. His bed sheet was wet with blood and the girl's pants were also blood-stained.

As soon as she got back home she made a report to her father, P.W.2, her mother and her cousin, Omotayo P.W.4. Her father examined her and they all went to the Mushin Police Station where they lodged a complaint. The girl, her mother and her cousin Omotayo that very night accompanied police constable Yinusa Akinniyi, P.W.6 to the room of the accused who was already in bed sleeping or pretending to be sleeping. In order to forestall the police the accused had changed his bed sheet and he and his room appeared innocent when the police officer got in. When he was confronted with his crime he cleverly sought safety in silence. After being charged and cautioned he said in Exhibit D "I reserve my statement."

The girl's father, her cousin Omotayo and the Investigating police constable testified as well as the girl. I do not consider it necessary to go into more evidence. I have no doubt that the accused took most improper liberties with the girl who was only anxious to get a job. The accused committed the crime with which he is charged but there is a practice in Nigerian courts which has for all practical purposes ripened into a law-that is the requirement of corroboration before conviction for rape even though the act does not call for corroboration. Corroboration covers not only the certainty that the criminal act was committed but also another certainty, namely that it was the accused who committed it. I probably put the matter somewhat strongly here because corroborative evidence may be direct, evidential or inferential. In the well-known case of Chief Odofin Bello v. The State (1966) 1 All N.L.R. 223 at page 230 and thereafter the Supreme Court cited with approval the law relating to corroboration as stated in R. v. Baskerville (1916) 2 K.B. 658:

"Corroborative evidence is evidence which shows or tends to show ...not merely that the crime has been committed, but that it was committed by the accused."