police as much as they know of a crime at the earliest opportunity in order
to be seen as witnesses of truth and a Court of law must be careful in
accepting delayed evidence when no satisfactory explanation is given. See
Ani v. State (2002) 5 S.C;(2002) 10 NWLR (Pt. 776) 644; (2002) LPELR489 SC Ndidi v. State (2005) 17 NWLR (Pt. 953) 17; (2005) LPELR-7550
CA.
The extra judicial statement of a witness in a criminal trial is inadmissible
as evidence for either side. The admissible evidence is the evidence on
oath in open Court by the witness which is subject to cross examination by
the adverse party. The only time when an extra judicial statement of a
witness is admissible is where a party seeks to use it to contradict the
evidence of a witness already given on oath. The defence witnesses will
ask for the statement and give reasons to the Court for doing so. On
production by the Prosecution, the defence counsel must seek to tender it
and refer to specific passages which contradict the evidence of the witness.
After it has been admitted in evidence, the specific portions of the
statement of the witness made to the Police must be shown to the witness
to read out or counsel may read it out to the witness. The witness must be
given an opportunity to explain the contradiction. Failure by the witness to
explain the contradiction in the evidence on oath of the witness and the
contents of the extra judicial statement can then be used to make an issue
during defence counsel's address. See S. 232 and 233 of the Evidence Act
2011 . The Court is not allowed to pick and choose between the two
statements. See State v. Fatai Azeez & Ors (2003) 4 SCNJ 325; Igenti v.
State (2013) LPELR-2086 (CA). At page 125-126 of the Record, the
learned trial judge held thus:
"PW4 testified how not finding the efforts at Inland Town Police Station
helpful, he began his own separate investigation which led to the arrest of
the accused person on 11/7/08. The interim police report as in Exh F has
nothing much to offer. PW4 compiled a fuller report which was admitted
as Exh H. I have earlier held that an identification parade was not
necessary in this case since PW2 knew the accused person before the day
of the alleged robbery. Apart from the fact that evidence of PW5
corroborated that of PW2, it also introduced evidence of character of
accused person. This evidence was contained in the Statements made to
the Police by PW2 and PW5, admitted in evidence as Exhs C and J