By: Hameed Ajibola Jimoh Esq.
Crimes and offences under the Nigerian Criminal Laws have their procedural rules guiding them. Also, in the Nigerian Criminal trials, the implications of statements written or written on behalf of a suspect prior to his prosecution in the court of law, cannot be overemphasized. Furthermore, the law is trite that an accused person/defendant can be convicted by the Court of law based on his ‘confessional statement’ alone, though, it must be pointed out that not all statements made by the accused person is a ‘confessional statement’. The content of the statement must clearly show or by conduct that the accused person intends or indeed admitted to the commission of the crime alleged against him. Hence, the ‘confessional statement’ of an accused person is very relevant in high degree in criminal trials. This confessional statement is also an evidence in priority that the defence counsel must work on and deal with in securing the innocence of the accused person.
Therefore, every Defence Counsel, Prosecuting Counsel and the Judge (in fact, every lawyer and Judge or Magistrate in criminal litigation) must be grounded in the knowledge of ‘Confessional Statement in Criminal Trials’! No wonder Mr Obioma Ezenwobodo (who is the current Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association, Garki-Abuja, Branch (2022-2024)) had taken his time and energy to contribute to this principle of criminal trial by writing the academic book titled ‘Fundamentals of Confessional Statement in Criminal Trials’, First Published in 2021, by Lawcraft Publishers Ltd, FCT-Abuja. Fortunately for me, on the 2nd day of June, 2022, the author of this book had gifted me a copy of the book when we met in a court at the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Abuja! I later studied the book and found out that the legal work proves itself to be highly outstanding just as the author and it is indeed from my respectful point of view, a veritable reference material in criminal trials, hence, my aim at introducing this book to the public, lawyers, judges and students of law, who would like to benefit from this ‘divine gift to mankind’! Sincerely, I must commend the author for this wonderful success! I must however note here that the author never asked me to make this comment. I voluntarily wish to make this comment on the book as a result of what I have perceived the book to be and for what significant benefits it would serve a reader of the book just as it serves me as my ‘very close companion in criminal trials’!
First it is settled law (in criminal trials) that the guilt of an accused person may be proved by the Prosecution/Complainant within the following three (3) options as held by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the case of DANJUMA v. STATE (2019) LPELR-47037(SC) Per BAGE, J.S.C. (Pp. 17-18, Paras. E-D) They are as follows:
“(i) a confessional statement of the accused;
(ii) evidence of an eye witness; or
(iii) Circumstantial evidence.” See IGRI VS THE STATE (2012) 16 NWLR (Pt.1327) 522; OGUNO VS THE STATE (2013) 15 NWLR (Pt.1377) at 1; IBRAHIM VS THE STATE (2014) 3 NWLR (Pt.1394) 305; OGEDENGBE VS THE STATE (2014) 12 NWLR (Pt.1421) 338 and UMAR VS THE STATE (2014) 13 NWLR (Pt.1425) at 497.
The following evidence must however be noted in a criminal charge/prosecution:
- The Charge;
- The Extra-Judicial Statement of the accused person/defendant;
- The Names of Witnesses and their statement of facts of their proposed testimonies;
- The list of exhibits to be tendered in the trial (both real and documentary);
The above documentary evidence might not be important where the accused person/defendant has pleaded guilty to the charge/charges or in relation to one or more of the charges. This is because an accused person can be convicted by the court solely on his confession/confessional statement. DANJUMA v. STATE CITATION: (2019) LPELR-47037(SC). ‘Whether a court can convict solely on the confessional statement of an accused person “The evidence adduced by the prosecution in proving its case at trial was in several folds. There is the side of confessional evidence of the Appellant which is neither denied nor challenged as contained in Exhibit 4 and 4A. This alone could ground conviction. By virtue of the provisions of Sections 28 of the Evidence Act, Confessional Statement is tenable and admissible. The section describes a confessional statement thus: “A confession is an admission made at any time by a person, charged with a crime tending to show or suggest the inference that he committed the crime.” Confessional statement is the best evidence to ground conviction and, as held in a number of cases, it can be relied upon solely where voluntary. The criminal guilt of an accused person could be established by confessional statement, circumstantial evidence and evidence of an eye witness. A confessional statement does not become inadmissible even if the accused person denied having made it. This has been the settled position in our jurisprudence of criminal justice. See for example PATRICK IKEMSON & 2 ORS VS THE STATE (1989) 3 NWLR (Pt.110) 455 at 476 Para D; JOSEPH IDOWU VS THE STATE (2000) 7 SC 50 AT 62; (2000) 12 NWLR (Pt.680), at 48, NKWUDA EDAMINE VS THE STATE (1996) 3 NWLR (Pt.438) 530 at 537 Para D-E; SAMUEL THEOPHILUS VS THE STATE (1996) 1 NWLR (Pt.423) Page 139 at 155 Para AB; and AWOPEJU VS THE STATE (2002) 3 MJSC 141 at 151. See also PETER ILIYA AZABADA VS THE STATE (2014) All FWLR (Pt.751) 1620, Para B where this Court, per the Learned Onnoghen, JSC (as he then was) declared that: “The confessional statement of an accused, where it is direct, positive and unequivocal as to the commission of the crime charged, is the best evidence and can be relied upon solely for conviction of the accused person. An accused person can be convicted on his confessional statement alone, where the confession is constant with other ascertained facts which have been proved…Confession in criminal procedure is the strongest evidence of guilt on the part of an accused person. It is stronger than evidence of an eye witness because the evidence comes from the horse’s mouth who is the accused person. There is no better evidence and there is no further proof.” Per BAGE, J.S.C. (Pp. 18-20, Paras. E-D).
Now, on the topic of this paper, Mr Obioma’s (op.cit.) book is of 373 pages with 14 Chapters on the title and dedicated to Chief Solomon Ezenwobodo (1940-1993) who was the author’s beloved father. The book went through: Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Definition of confession and confessional statement; Chapter 3: Interpretation of Confessional Statement; Chapter 4: Voluntariness and Reliability of Confessional Statement; Chapter 5: Admissibility of Confessional Statement; Chapter 6: Retraction of Confessional Statement; Chapter 7: Trial-Within-Trial; Chapter 8: Confessional Statement Under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended); Chapter 9: Confessional Statement Under the Evidence Act, 2011; Chapter 10: Confessional Statement Under the Administration of Criminal Justice (ACJA), 2015; Chapter 11: Confessional Statement Under the Nigeria Police Act, 2020; Chapter 12: Confessional Statement Under the Anti-Torture Act, 2017; Chapter 13: The Inconsistency Rule; Chapter 14: Judge’s Rules and Confessional Statement. The preface to the book was made by the author himself. The Table of Cases as well as the Table of Statutes are very detailed in alphabetical orders respectively. The List of abbreviations is directory.
Finally, it is my humble view that the hidden significant benefits of this book can be easily cultivated where a copy or copies are obtained by the reader for personal but professional digest! Most respectfully, I recommend this book (in good conscience) to every lawyer, judge, student of law and anyone in search of legal knowledge on the subject matter of ‘Confessional Statement in Criminal Trials in Nigeria’! Also, as an aid, the author can be reached via his phone contact: 08064999866.
Email: hameed_ajibola@yahoo.com
