consignees of the -goods in the containers. The owner of Efcrism Group Mr.
Kayode Fashagba was arrested by NDLEA officials and taken to their office where
he made a statement. PW9 confirmed under cross-examination that Kayode
Fashagba said he was aware of the containers and was communicating with the
shippers. Yet he was not charged along with the Appellant and Ugwu and was not
even called as a witness to testify as to his link with the consignment. His evidence
would have thrown more light on the involvement of the appellant in the
importation of the cocaine. The prosecution could have done more on the claim by
the appellant that the bills of lading were given to him by Chief Oke. NDLEA
officials had seized the phones of the appellant and could have obtained from his
service providers all his call records to check for conversations relating to the
importation of cocaine from Bolivia and in particular checked out the call records
of Chief Oke's boy whose number was made available to NDLEA. Under
cross-examination, PW9 said they must have tried in their office to trace the owner
of the number 081-33084663 (Chief Oke's boy) but no evidence on the point was
led by the prosecution. If there was nothing of relevance from the call records, that
would have assisted in establishing the fact that Chief Oke did not exist. Rather the
prosecution it appears shifted to the appellant the burden of producing Chief Oke
forgetting that the burden of proving the case beyond reasonable doubt imposes on
the prosecution the burden of eliminating any doubt that could arise from the
evidence presented. It is the duty of the prosecution to prove the charge against an
accused person beyond reasonable doubt. If there is any doubt, it must be resolved
in favour of the accused as the presumption is that accused is Innocent until proven
guilty. See Williams v The State (1992) NWLR (PT. 261) 515; Ogundiyan v. State
(1991) 3 NWLR (Pt. 181) 519; Chukwuma v. F. R. N. (2011) LPELR-SC.
253/2007. The prosecution has in my view failed to put forward before the court
evidence which is so strong, compelling and convincing against the appellant such
that it leaves no reasonable man in doubt as to the probability that the appellant
indeed imported cocaine into Nigeria in the container AASCU 1287231. The doubt
is there that he may not have been a party to the importation of the cocaine and was
just assisting Chief Oke clear the container.
The judgment of the trial court is at pages 310 to 350 of the printed record. It is
noteworthy that summary of the proceedings and addresses of counsel spanned
from pages 310 to 348 of the judgment. The views and actual judgment of the court
started from the middle of page 348 to 350. The primary duty of a trial court is to
evaluate evidence led at the trial, to make appropriate findings and to come to a
reasonable conclusion based on its evaluation of the evidence. The learned trial
judge did not evaluate adequately the evidence led neither did his lordship give due
consideration to the issues raised in the addresses of counsel. The only comment
the learned trial judge made about the appellant's claim that Chief Oke gave him
the bills of lading to clear the ceramic tiles for him is this: