charge . I~ is therefore mischievous to refer to only tra nsform er. W e shou ld note that an appeal is not a retrial. It should be borne in mind that the matter before the tri'al court is a crim ina l m'atter and not a civil matter. Such issues of jurisdiction to a charge in a criminal matter should be raised at the plea stage and not after, see Section 273 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2010 of Anambra State . The word used thereat is " SHALL" which connotes a mandatory compliance, see the case of ONOCHIE v ODOGWU (2006) 6 NWLR part 975 page 65 at page 89 . See also OKEWU v FRN (2012) LPELR - 7834 (CA) . It is worth noting that even in the new Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 at Section 396, such an issue may be raised at anytime at trial before judgment but such an objection is to be considered along with the substantive issues and a ruling made at the time of delivery of the judgment . This statute is - given a stamp of approval in the Court of Appeal decisi\rn jn the case of OBODO v THE STATE (2016) LPELR - 40939 (CA). This means that coming under our law such an issue should come in at address and not at a No Case Submission which calls for a court to look at the case of the prosecution to see if there is a ground for proceeding with the defence as held in ADUKU v FRN (supra). This is not a civil trial but a criminal one. In criminal trials once plea is taken the court has jurisdiction see NWAFOR OKEGBU v THE STATE (1979) 11 SC page 1 per lrikefe JSC a.s he then was. I hold that the trial magistrate has not gone wrong and I affirm his r·uling. On the issue of hearsay as raised by learned Appellants' counsel, I do not agree with counsel that the evidence of the P~2 the Police Officer is one of hearsay·. As stated above, this is a criminal trial and the Police Officer who testifies as an IPO (Investigating Police Officer) is not a party to an offence, he is not an eye witness and comes to court to state what he found out on investigation based on facts related to him by a complainant, ~ rely on the case of OBOT v THE STATE (2014) LPELR - 23130 (CA) per NDUKWE - ANYANWU JCA at page 36 This is the Judgment delivered by Hon. Justice D.A. Onyefulu on 3/iZ/2018 Page 8