OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, JCA (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal queries the correctness of the decision of the High Court of Cross River State, holden in Calabar (hereinafter addressed as “the lower court”), coram judice: Elias O. Abua, J., in Charge No. HC/5C/2013, delivered on 22nd September, 2014. Before the lower court, the appellant and the respondent were the accused person and complainant respectively.
The facts of the case, which transformed into the appeal, are amenable to brevity and simplicity. On or about 15th November, 2006, the appellant and four others, at No. 3 Coffee Road, Adiabo village, Calabar accused one Charles Etim Effiong of having power of witchcraft which he used to cause the death of one late Effiong Nsa Ewa who died following the injuries he sustained in a motor cycle accident. Sequel to the allegation, the appellant and the four others went to the premises of Charles Etim Effiong and willfully and unlawfully damaged his buildings and carted away…