in his house is fatal to the prosecution’s case because she is a vital witness. For the purpose of this submission, the question that are ask, is who is a vital witness? The Supreme Court in the case of Ishaya V. State (2019) 19 WRN 13 at 144 line 10 per Augie JSC held as follows:“A vital witness, is a witness whose evidence may determine the case against an accused one way or the other, and failure to call such a vital witness is likely to be fatal to the prosecution’s case.” - Onah V. State (1985) 3 NWLR pt 12 p 236. From the foregoing, the defence counsel did not show how vital the evidence of the mother of PW1 is to the proof of the allegation against the Defendant, or how her evidence may determine the case against the Defendant one way or the other. In the absence of any of the foregoing importance of the evidence of the mother of PW1 advance by the defence counsel, this court did not see any vitality of the evidence of the mother of PW1 in this case. It is trite law that the prosecution is only required to call the number of witnesses sufficient to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt. Where an accused person considers a particular witness vital to his defence, he is at liberty to call such witness to testify on his behalf. - Ishaya V. State (Supra) at page 154 lines 15-20 per Kekere – Ekun Jsc. - Bassey V. State (2019) 28 WRN 75 at 96 lines 35-40, per Peter Odili JSC. Page 17 of 21