Reprieve has come the way of a landlord in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, identified as Michael Archibong Udo, following the successful appeal of his death sentence and life imprisonment for allegedly being responsible for the death of his tenant, Grace Okon.
Udo’s sojourn to the prison began when his fowl was killed by an unknown person. The incident forced him to place a curse on the alleged killer(s) of the bird.
He reportedly invoked spiritual powers to visit the same ill-treatment meted out on his bird on those behind its death.
Thereafter, the woman (Grace Okon) died and Udo was arrested for being behind her death through his earlier pronouncement (curse).
But Udo, until his successful appeal in case No. CA/C/349c/2020, had spent 17 years in jail after being convicted with two other defendants in a judgment delivered on 9th March, 2017, on the offences of conspiracy and murder charged under Section 556 (1) and 326 (1) of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Vol. 2, Laws of the Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, 2000.
According to the particulars of the case, made available to LEADERSHIP, Udo was arrested by the police on 19th July, 2006, following the death of Grace Okon, 50. The deceased was a neighbour to the freed convict, Udo, whose house is located at No 4C Old Ring Road, Uyo.
The deceased had packed into the place as a neighbour less than three months before her death on 11th May, 2006. She was found dead in her house, kneeling on her bed as if she was praying.
Before the late Grace was found dead, she was said to have had issues with Udo over his dead fowl. Udo, who visited his property occasionally from his base in Edina Uford, Cross River State, had accused her of being responsible for the fowl’s death.
The matter was reportedly settled as Udo had accepted N1 million as compensation before returning to his base in Cross River State.
However, before the settlement, he was accused of waving the dead bird and promised that “whoever is responsible will also die like the fowl.” And when Grace died after some time, he was accused of using diabolical powers to kill her, as he had earlier declared.
However, the trial of the case at the lower court revealed that the 1st, 2nd and 4th respondents, who were tenants to Udo, had fled after the arrest of their landlord, but were later arrested, tried and convicted alongside Udo for conspiracy and murder.
The autopsy of Grace Okon, which was carried out by Dr. Anthony Leo Umanah, attributed her death to “blunt trauma with extreme exhaustion.”
But the trial judge at the lower court in his considered judgement, delivered on 9th March, 2017, found Udo guilty of conspiracy and murder of the deceased.
His judgement read: “In the case of the 1st and 4th accused, I totally believe the evidence of PWs 4 and 6 in conjunction with the statement of the deceased made to the police before her death, that is Exhibit F.
“The testimony of the PW 4, who lived with the deceased prior to her death, is apt; he collaborated on the issues raised by the deceased in Exhibit F.
“I believe that the 1st, 3rd and 4th accused formed a common intention to murder the deceased and actually murdered her on 11th May, 2006, taking advantage of the fact that she was alone in the house on the fateful day, PW 4 having gone back to school. It is also against the forging background that I find the 1st, 3rd and 4th accused persons guilty as charged,” he had ruled.
Not satisfied with the lower court’s judgment, Udo’s counsel approached the Court of Appeal, Calabar Judicial Division. His notice of appeal was filed on March 21, 2017.
LEADERSHIP checks revealed that in his two grounds of appeal, he urged the appellate court to determine: “Whether the lower court was right to have totally ignored the alibi timeously raised by the appellant and consequently convicted and sentenced the appellant to imprisonment/death.
“Whether the judgment of the court is supported by credible evidence on record.”
Arising therefrom, in their judgement, the learned Justices Muhammed L. Shuaibu, Donatus U. Okorowo and Justice Oyejoju O. Oyewumi, noted that “the burden of proving the guilt of a defendant for the offence he was charged with beyond reasonable doubt is discharged when the prosecution proves by evidence the ingredient or element of the offences charged, and that the guilt of the defendant is proved, either through an eye witness account, circumstantial evidence or a confessional statement of the defendant.”
The appellate court which faulted the lower court’s admission in judgment that “Much as there is no direct evidence of conspiracy and murder of the deceased, Grace Okon, against the 1st, 3rd and 4th accused persons, circumstantial evidence against them is such that the court believe, links them to the murder of the deceased,” noting that the conviction of appellant and the other co-accused for conspiracy “was not based on any scintilla of evidence, but on mere conjuncture by the learned trial judge.”
On the conspiracy and murder of which Udo and two other defendants were arraigned and found guilty, the learned justices held that “the offence of conspiracy is the agreement of two or more persons to do an unlawful act or to do a lawful act by unlawful means,” maintaining that “in the instant case, none of the defendants gave any indication that they conspired to do an unlawful act or unlawful act by unlawful means.”
The appellate court noted that the defendant (Udo), who was not even in Akwa Ibom State as he was in far-away Edina Uford community in Cross River State when the said died, faulted the inability of the police to properly investigate the case before prosecution.
The learned justices faulted the lower court for jettisoning the appellant’s “defence of alibi and erroneously held that the appellant was fixed to the scene of the crime at the relevant time.
“In the absence of superior evidence fixing the appellant at the scene of the crime, the appellant is perforce entitled to be acquitted. In all, the prosecution now respondent having failed to adduce cogent and credible evidence in proof of the essential ingredients of the offences charged, there could be never be proof beyond reasonable doubt.
“And in the consequence thereof, the sole issue is resolved in favour of the appellant. On the whole, the appeal is meritorious and it is hereby allowed. The conviction and sentence of the appellant is accordingly set aside while the appellant is discharged and acquitted,” the justices said.
The emotionally broken Udo, fighting back tears, commended the appellate court for being discreet in his case. While thanking God for the breath of air of freedom after 17 years of trauma, he noted that his active years had been wasted over what he knew nothing about and demanded appropriate compensation.
Having wasted 17 years in prison awaiting execution for an offence he did not commit, Udo has urged the state government to heed his plea for compensation.
