“To any ordinary Nigerian and to the mind of the law,
this mistake can easily be committed either by the owner
of the name or the inscribers of the name.”
The defence counsel after highlighting the discrepancies, did
not however shows how the discrepancies disqualify the
relevancy of the statement sought to be tendered to the fact in
issue before this court. Consequently, the objection of the
learned
defence
counsel
on
this
ground,
is
hereby
discountenanced.
Defence counsel also argued that since the statement sought
to be tendered is a product of questions and answer session
and the interpreter who double as the recorder of the
statement was not called for the purpose of tendering the
statement through him, the said statement is inadmissible.
The part of the evidence of witness which is the subject of this
contention reads as follows:“The defendant was asked whether he intends to
volunteered a statement, and he said yes and as a result,
an EFCC statement form with cautionary words on it,
was give to the defendant and the cautionary words were
explained to him in Hausa by his friend Umar
Mohammed Yabo and the defendant said he understood
the cautionary words and signed with date. He then
authorized his friend Umar Mohammed Yabo to write
down the statement for him. After writing the statement in
English because he interpreted it from Hausa, the
statement was read over to the defendant in Hausa
language by his said friend and the defendant accepted the
contents to his statement and signed at the end of the
statement. His friend Umar Mohammed Yabo also signed
as interpreter and recorder. This happened on the 5th July,
2021.”
After the witness testified as above and identified the
statement which was sought to be tendered through him, the
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