WALLACE-JOHNSON v. R.

In an appeal concerning a sedition prosecution, Kingdon, C.J., Nigeria, delivered the court’s judgment. The court held that the words in the impugned article were obviously seditious, and that under each count all elements of the offence were proved. Addressing a challenge to trial conduct, the court found that although Mr. Thomas’s opinion about the writer’s object was not admissible evidence, his and Captain Warrington’s expert opinions on the likely effect of such publications on local inhabitants were proper, given their roles as Secretaries for Native Affairs. The court noted the Chief Justice’s summing-up properly directed the assessors to the real issue: whether the article was calculated to bring the Government of the Gold Coast into hatred. Finding no irregularity and that any evidentiary error was minor and harmless, the court dismissed the appeal and upheld the convictions.