K. ESO, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): Nathaniel Nasamu, a soldier by profession, was convicted of the murder of one Iyese Otutu by the Lagos High Court, (Bakare J.) in May 1977. He was accordingly sentenced to death. He appealed against the conviction and sentence to the Federal Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos and that court, after hearing arguments on the grounds of appeal filed by the appellant, dismissed his appeal on 13th June, 1978. It is against the judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal that the Appellant has appealed to this Court.
The appellant is represented by Chief F.R.A. Williams, S.A.N. who filed a copious brief and made legal submissions thereupon.
As all the grounds of appeal relied upon by learned counsel were based on fact, it is necessary to set out the facts of this case upon which the trial court relied in convicting the appellant. The deceased's uncle, who was the first prosecution witness, was conveying some consignment of cement in a lorry from Ap…