REX v. NGWU OBUKA

Chief Justice Kingdon, sitting with Justices Butler Lloyd and Graham Paul, considered an appeal arising from a trial in Nigeria in which the appellant and two women were charged with slave dealing under section 369(2) of the Criminal Code and child stealing under section 371(1)–(2). The trial judge acquitted all three on the slave-dealing count but convicted them on child stealing, sentencing the appellant to seven years’ imprisonment with hard labour. On appeal, the Crown did not attempt to defend the child-stealing conviction; instead, it asked the Court to use section 11(2) of the West African Court of Appeal Ordinance, 1933, to substitute a conviction under section 365. The Court held it could not substitute count one due to the acquittal and was not satisfied that the trial judge necessarily found facts proving a section 365 offence. The appeal was allowed and the appellant was discharged.