REX v. HANSEN OWAREY

The following joint judgment was delivered :-

KINGDON, C.]., NIGERIA, BUTLER LLOYD AND CAREY, J].

The only question raised on this appeal is whether the Court came to a right decision with regard to the law as to intoxication as a defence in this country.

It is sufficient to say that in our opinion the learned Trial Judge, set out the law on that point both fully and correctly.

The appeal is dismissed.

The facts of this case are to be found in the following judgment of the learned Trial Judge:-

The accused, a native of the Gold Coast, is charged with the murder of a fellow clerk who like himself was employed at a mining camp in the Sokoto Province on October 30th last by shooting him with a shot gun. The evidence shows that the accused and the deceased were called to the Manager's office on a Sunday afternoon to draft and type a reply to a letter from a neighbouring manager, to which an inadequate reply had already been dispatched in the absence of the Manager in the morning; an altercation then arose and the accused struck the deceased over the face with a . piece of paper Exhibit" D " on which was his draft which he had attempted to re-draft. Odonkor a younger and stronger man whom the accused describes as his nephew then rose and pushed him and accused fell over backwards; In rising accused picked up a heavy hammer and attempted to strike deceased with it but was prevented from doing so: the Manager then separated them and accused departed saying" I will go home and rest ".

Shortly afterwards, Owarey returned with a shot gun loaded in both barrels and three spare cartridges in his pocket, aimed the gun at the Manager, then went in search of someone, clearly the deceased, found him in the office and shot him at a distance of a few yards in the stomach. He had remarked " Where is he ? •• and " Someone ,,;ill die to-day". The witnesses describe his previous conduct as normal but after being apprehended he was abnormal, was shouting and exclaimed" Whatever I have done is nothing" and" What have I done?". The deceased was some two hours later placed on a bed at 6 p.m. to be carried by porters to Gusau hospital some 50 miles away. It might have been thought that as there were no local means of treatment such a step was the only hope of saving his life which indeed was small in view of the nature of the wound. The evidence shows that 2i hours after setting out the deceased was found to be dead; his body was carried to Gusau hospital identified to the