Verity, C.J., Nigeria. This is an application for leave to appeal against a conviction for murder. The case for the Crown is that the body of the deceased was found about a quarter of a mile from the house of the accused bearing no less than eight wounds, some of them of great severity and which were the cause of death. As a result of information received by the police the accused was arrested and charged with murder. After being cautioned he made a statement in which he alleged that the deceased broke into his house during the night, and that he chased him and cut him with a matchet; which he showed to the police.
At the trial he completely denied making any such statement. While it is true that the conviction of an accused person solely on his own subsequently retracted statement is to be viewed with extreme caution, in this case the signed statement made to one police witness and subsequently confirmed before a senior officer is supported by the evidence of a third police officer as to statements made by the accused immediately upon his arrest and the action of the accused in showing to that officer the matchet with which he alleged he had cut the deceased and the damage he then said had been done by the deceased in breaking into his house, as well as by the finding in the pocket of the deceased pieces of meat then alleged by the accused to have been stolen by the deceased from an iron pot in his kitchen shown also by the accused to the police corporal. This extremely circumstantial corroboration of the signed statement, the truth of the evidence regarding which the learned trial Judge accepted, provides in our view ample evidence upon which the Judge was justified*Page 353in finding as a fact that the applicant killed the deceased in the circumstances set out in his statement.
The sole remaining question is whether those facts constitute the crime of murder.
A person who in the night finds another in the act of committing a felony is entitled to use such force as may be necessary to apprehend the felon even to the extent of killing him in order to prevent his escape but it would be an unhappy state of affairs if when he has caught up with the escaping felon who is unarmed he should be at liberty to hack him to death with a lethal weapon such as al matchet. This goes far beyond the force which would be justified by the circumstances and is in our view clearly murder. We do not think that any reasonable argument could be adduced to the contrary and leave to appeal is therefore refused.
Application refused.