PATS-ACHOLONU, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal which arose from a conviction for murder that was subsequently affirmed by the Court of Appeal. The facts of this case are very simple. The appellant was charged before the Benin High Court for the murder of one Edomwonyi Aghedo. In the course of hearing the case in the High Court, an issue arose as to whether the statement the appellant made to the police was voluntary or not and a trial within a trial was conducted. At the end of that short proceeding, the presiding Judge ruled that the statement made by the prisoner was voluntarily made.
The defence of the appellant in the court of first instance was to the effect that he saw a deer, took and aim at the "animal", shot and killed it and proceeded to cut it to pieces because it proved too heavy for him to carry away in one piece. His story was that it was at the point of its being cut in small measures that the "animal" metamorphosed into a human being who turne…