The death of Toba Falode, son to
a veteran sport journalist Aishat Falode who fell to his death in Dubai,his
body was found dead outside Manchester Tower in Dubai Marina on February
15,2014.It was gathered that he was pushed/fell from a 17th floor to
the floor which led to his death. In the case of investigation the family
collected from some witnesses who claim there was a dispute on the apartment
balcony seconds before Falode fell to his death, they say at least two people
saw him fall to the ground and were inside the apartment.
The family through their
solicitor, Lagos Nigeria based lawyer Festus Keyamo has given a clear 7 days
notice for witnesses to go the Jebel Ali police station before launching a
publicity campaign in Dubai.
This takes us to the role of
witnesses in criminal matters, SECTION 175(1) EVIDENCE ACT 2011 state that
All persons shall be competent to testify
unless the court considers
that they are prevented from understanding
the questions put to them,
or from giving rationale answers by reason
of tender years, extreme old age,
disease whether of body or mind or any cause
of the kind.
(2) a person of unsound mind is not
incompetent to testify unless
he
is prevented by his mental infirmity from understanding the questions
put to him and giving rational answers to
them.
What the above quoted section
of the Evidence Act is saying is that all persons shall be competent and
compellable to testify, therefore those who spoke with the family that they
witnessed the incidence shall be competent enough to give evidence in the law
court and also compellable where they fail to do so.
A witness’s right is also
protected SECTION 183 EVIDENCE ACT states that no witness shall be compellable
as no witness shall be compelled to give evidence that can incriminate him but
can be compelled to give evidence when need arise.
A proof of evidence in
criminal case is like a statement of claim in civil cases; it should be
explicit and should not hide anything from other party as it is not a game of
hide and seek. In OLOWOYO V. STATE CA/C/91(2012) 17 NWLR and JOSIAH V.STATE it
was held that all facts evidence and exhibits should be brought to the court to
enable the appellant prepare his defence.
The veracity and credibility
of a witness is assessed with the following knowledge of witness on the facts
to which he testifies, his disinterestedness, integrity or whether evidence of
witness is contradictory or contradicted by surrounding circumstances. IKEKWEM
V. COP DELTA STATE (2005)
It is worth to note that where
a made previous statement is inconsistent with the evidence given at the trial,
the court will be slow to act on the evidence as unreliable ONUBOGU V. STATE (1974)
ANLR 561.
Your Rights Under Law is
hereby appealing to the witnesses in the interest of justice to kindly come out
and give evidence within their knowledge to help get to the root of this
killing, we never can tell who the next victim would be.
Note that the law does not
respect anyone failure to comply you shall be compelled to do so. Let’s put an
end to CRIME.
REST ON TOBA FALODE.
Yours faithfully,
Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi
LLB(hons)BL
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