OKONOFUA & ANOR V. THE STATE (1981) 6-7S.C 1 AT 18 AND OGOALA
V. THE STATE (1991) 2 NWLR (PT. 175) 509 AT 527.
Now, therefore, guided by these Principles severally laid down by the Apex
Court, the ability of the Prosecution to determine the Number and Quality of
its Witness or Witnesses cannot be questioned by the Court and certainly not
by the Defence. After all, it is its case and will swim or sink with its choice in
the mode it applies in propagating the evidence it has against the Defendant.
It is the quality of the evidence it leads that sustains its case.
Therefore, it remained the Prerogative of the Prosecution not to call the
Chief Detail, Mr. Adamu Aboki, and whether the Prosecution proffered no
sufficient proof of their attempt to locate him or not, is neither here nor
there to the fact that it is the choice of the Prosecution to call which ever
Witness he strategizes, would be adequate to prove its Case as severally held
by the Apex Court.
Learned Counsel to the Defence had also referred to the failure of the
Prosecution to call Mr. Dennis Bobo, the Late Steward of the Taraba State
Governor’s Lodge to testify in regard to the claim of Mr. Abdulrahman
Mohammed that it was him that opened the Bedroom door to the Governor’s
Bedroom for him to drop the Money.
Had the fact of the death of Dennis Bobo been elicited from the mouth of a
Prosecution’s Witness, the contention by the Defence would have been
pardonable. It is ludicrous and utterly preposterous to say the least, that the
Defence Counsel is questioning the integrity of its own Witness, DW2, DSP
Philips E. Akolo, the Defendant’s Orderly who had stated very clearly that the
said Mr. Dennis Bobo had passed on. Since the summoning of Mr. Dennis
Bobo whose death was unchallenged, can only be sanctioned and approved
by the Almighty God, the Defence Counsel would have to make a Trip to
Heaven to ask for his release to appear before the Court.
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