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HE WHO IS IN POSSESSION OF STOLEN GOODS IS PRESUMED TO BE THE ROBBER

Dictum

Earlier in this Judgment I found and held that the evidence of PW.1, PW 2, DW.1 and DW.2 (the Appellant) had linked the Appellant to the GLO recharge cards violently stolen from the PW.1 when she was robbed on 19th January 2013. The Appellant had thus come to be in possession of stolen goods. Thus a proper foundation had been laid for the invocation of the presumption under Section 167(a) of the Evidence Act, 2011 to the effect that a man who is in possession of stolen goods soon after the theft or robbery is either the robber or a receiver of stolen goods knowing them to have been stolen, unless he could give good account for his possession. The Appellant’s account that he found the GLO recharge cards on the road was not believed by the trial Court, which rather preferred the PW.1’s account that the recharge cards were stolen from her in an armed robbery operation.

— E. Eko, JSC. Kekong v State (2017) – SC.884/2014

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INGREDIENTS OF THE OFFENCE OF ROBBERY

The ingredients of the offence of armed robbery are: 1. That there was a robbery or series of robberies. 2. That each robbery was an armed robbery and 3. That the accused was the robber or among those who participated in the robbery. See: Bozin vs The State (1985) 2 NWLR (pt.8) 465; Nwachukwu vs The State (1985) 1 NWLR (Pt.11) 218; Afolabi vs The State (2010) 16 NWLR (Pt.1220) 584.

— K.M.O. Kekere-Ekun, JSC. Kekong v State (2017) – SC.884/2014

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