AYINDE
V.
THE QUEEN

BRETT, J.S.C. (delivering the judgement of the Court): The appellant was convicted in the High Court of Western Nigeria of the murder of his wife, Taibatu Ayinde, to whom he had been married for about six years. They would appear to have lived together happily and there was no evidence of any serious quarrels. On the day in question, a half-brother of the appellant's was celebrating his marriage and the appellant, his wife and his mother attended the ceremony. The appellant was the first to leave, and had returned home before his mother went to the ceremony. She left him sitting in the parlour. His wife, who with his permission had been helping at the house where the ceremony was being performed, was the next to leave, but no witness who saw her leave was called. When his mother returned to her own house she saw the dead body of the appellant's wife lying on the ground and the appellant near the body, cutting himself on the head with a cutlass. She shouted, but before anyone else arri…