PW1 for sale. As a circle towards the attainment of the set
objective, the 2nd Defendant called the 3rd Defendant who now
showed to PWS 1 and 3 including the 2nd Defendant, the plots
ED3 and ED4. PW1 in his evidence clearly stated that Augustine
James, the 2nd Defendant told him that he would verify the
genuineness of the Plots and that on his return in September,
2009 from London, United Kingdom, the 2nd Defendant confirmed
to him that exhibits 1 and 2 were genuine. However, by the
testimony of PW2, it is confirmed that exhibits 1 and 2 were not
genuine. Secondly neither the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Defendants testified
as to how exhibits 1 and 2 were procured because by the
evidence of PW2, he testified as follows: “After our verification we discovered that the plots
were not allocated by the office and we reply the
Economic and Financial Crime Commission
accordingly.”
Thus, by the evidence of the prosecution witnesses and the
exhibits tendered before the Court, mens rea can be drawn from
the actus reus of the Defendants to infer conspiracy. In the case
of USMAN KAZA V THE STATE, (2008) LPELR 1683, the
Supreme Court held: “In the offence of Conspiracy, the mens rea is not
easy to locate as it is mostly, if not invariably,
buried in secrecy. And so, the actus reus of the
offence which is easier to locate can draw the
mens rea to the open, and make it possible for the
Court to find inculpatory evidence.”
Further, the Supreme Court held: “A Conspiracy is complete if there are acts on the
part of an accused person which lead the trial
court to conclusion that he and others were
engaged in accomplishing a common object or
objective.”
28