A High Court of Abak division in Akwa Ibom State on Friday discharged and acquitted one Glory Dan, who has been standing trial since 2016, for allegedly murdering her father.
After going through the submissions of both the State (for Prosecution) and the Defence, the presiding Judge, Justice Edem Akpan in the course of the hearing and final addresses, concluded that there was no proof by the prosecution of the use of lethal weapon by the accused person to inflict injury on the deceased.
Delivering judgment on suit no HIT/3c/2017, Justice Akpan said, “I do not believe the attempt of the prosecution to infer that the cane the accused person collected from the deceased and used on him in retaliation caused the death of the deceased”.
It was gathered that the accused was brought before the court on May 5th, 2016, after she attacked her father for her marital woes.
According to the statement she volunteered to the police at the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation, “I decided to confront my late father, Mr Bassey Dan of Mbiakpan Atan village in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State for being responsible for my marital problems because it was revealed to me in a dream by my late mother that my father was the one behind the death of my two husbands.
“On that fateful day, I visited my father and requested that he should open the door, he refused to open the door and I forcibly gained access through the window, demanding to know why my father was silent about my marital sufferings.
“Instead of my father to respond to the question, he pulled a cane he kept behind the door and caned her. In retaliation, I snatched the cane and caned him twice before running out of the room with him chasing after.
“I ran towards my mother’s grave and fell down on top of her grave and cried for help and my father left.”
When the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Insp Gabriel Sunday visited the scene, he told court in his evidence that there was evidence of dried blood in the room. But the police failed to conduct an autopsy on the corpse to determine the cause of death.
Of the three witnesses called by the prosecution, none was an eyewitness. The accused, who was the only defense witness, claimed that as at the time she collected the cane, to flog her father in retaliation and left the compound, the father was not dead.
Citing many authorities including the position of the Supreme Court in Joseph Lori & Anor Vs the State (1980) NSCQR 212 at 225 where it is held that “A more useful medical evidence would not only have unequivocally established the cause of death but may have provided the necessary nexus between the death of the victim and the act of the accused”, Justice Akpan concluded that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“Therefore the issues of determination are resolved in favour of the defense,” he said. Accordingly, the case was dismissed.
DAILY POST reports that O. P. Okpo led Kokoette Eyo and Idongest Timothy for the State, while Nsisong Udofia appeared for the Defence.
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