preferring to give it later will not be regarded as a serious witness and a
Court of law must be careful in accepting his evidence unless a
satisfactory explanation is given for the delay. He cited Sunday Anyanwu
v. The State (1986) 5 NWLR (Pt. 43) 612, Ani v State (2007) All FWLR
(pt. 482) 1044 at 1064; Ndidi v. State (2007) All FWLR (Pt. 381) 1617 at
1650; 8 Abdullahi v. State (2008) All FWLR (Pt. 432) 1047.
Appellant's counsel argued that Exh C and J cannot validly corroborate Ex
B without more, and Exh H being compiled on the basis of Exh C and Exh
J is not an independent piece of evidence, hence is insufficient to
corroborate Exh B, C and J.
Appellant's counsel contended that Exh A, D and E were forged by the
Prosecution to bolster its case against the Appellant, since they were not
filed along with the initial proof of evidence nor were they mentioned until
6/11/09, when the Defence mentioned to the Court while moving the
motion for the bail of the Appellant that the robbery incident was reported
to the Police in July instead of May that it was alleged to have happened.
Counsel contended further that there is no clear evidence that Exh D was
issued from the Police Station on 4/5/08. Exh E was dated 5/5/08 and the
trial Court after rejecting Exh A as being forged, listed Exh D and E as
part of the documents to rely on even after P.W.2 told the Court on
21/4/10 that they never went back to the station on 5/5/08.
Counsel posited that there are material contradictions in the evidence of
the Prosecution witnesses and other witnesses who could have shed more
light on these were not called forth. Counsel cited Okhuaboro v. Chief
Aigbe (2002) FWLR (Pt. 116) 869 at 916. Counsel submitted that where
there are contradictions in the evidence of a prosecution witness, a trial
judge must reject all the evidence because it is not allowed to pick and
choose which evidence to believe. Counsel cited Ogbu v. State (2003)
FWLR (Pt. 147) 1102 at 1118.
Appellant's counsel submitted that the entire evidence before the Lower
Court was not properly evaluated thereby causing grave miscarriage of
justice and that the trial Court lowered the standard of proof in a criminal