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The following joint judgment was delivered.
BUTLER LLOYD, AG. C.]., NIGERIA, GRAHAM PAUL AND BROOKE, ].J.
The appellant was charged with the murder of one Nwoacha ; was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to. ten years Imprisonment with Hard Labour. Against that conviction he has appealed to. this Court ..
The facts of the case are simple, and not seriously in controversy.
The woman Nwoacha was at one time the wife of the accused. She refused to. continue living with the accused and in consequence the accused demanded the repayment of. n 1 Os. " head money" which he had paid. Nwoacha, and apparently her mother, promised to. repay the money as soon as they could do. so., but the accused was not satisfied with these promises.' He brought a " Juju" called "Onye Uku," pointed it towards Nwoacha and said something to the following effect :-
Since you refuse to pay me my money this juju will kill you or since you refuse to pay me you shall no more eat or drink."
He left the juju at the house where the deceased lived.
It is proved that Nwoacha was much affected in mind by. this juju and the threat. She became very depressed, though there is no. evidence that she stopped eating or drinking, or that her physical health was in any way affected.
Six days after the bringing of the juju by the accused the woman Nwoacha went out and hanged herself by the neck with a cloth from a.. tree, so high that her feet hung six feet above the ground-·a method of suicide requiring considerable strength, deliberation and determination.
The learned judge applied to these facts section 310 of the Criminal Code which is in these terms :-
A person who, by threats or intimidation or by deceit, causes another person to do an act or make an omission which results i!1 the death of that other person, is deemed to have killed him," and found the accused guilty of the ,manslaughter of Nwoacha.
In so finding, the learned Judge expressly pointed out that the case was not within the English decisions as to the effect in this branch of the Criminal Law of acts directly causing death and induced by a well-grounded apprehension of immediate serious violence. He held however that to the native mind" juju may be a well-grounded apprehension of serious harm and even of death-- if not immediate, yet inevitable and irresistible."
The learned Judge expressly found this case analogous to the case of the man who is so terrified by another that he jumps out of a window.
We are unable to ag