A. O. OBASEKI, JSC. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): My Lords, the issues raised in this appeal are confined within very narrow limits. Broadly speaking, they are three in number:
(1) whether the confessional statements Exhibit 35 and Exhibit 37, the statements made by the 1st and 2nd appellants respectively to the police admitting the plan to kill and the act of killing were admissible in view of the allegations of threats and torture;
(2) whether during the trial within a trial, the evidence called and adduced by the prosecution in rebuttal of the serious allegations of torture against some police officers was admissible in law and if admissible whether it did not constitute an erosion of the fairness of the trial and the standard of proof required to be satisfied by the prosecution;
(3) whether the confession by the appellants in their confessional statements was unequivocal, direct and positive enough to prove the offence and constitute sufficient evidence to support the convict…