The Appellant was arraigned before the High Court charged with the offence of attempted murder contrary to sections 211 (b) and 380 (1) of the Penal Code [Cap 16 R.E. 2002]. Initially the Appellant was arraigned in court on the offence of attempted murder contrary to section 211 (a) (b) of the Code. When the case was called on for trial the court granted leave to the prosecution to substitute the charge. The new charge read, attempted murder contrary to section 211 (b) and 380 (1) of the Code. The Appellant was found guilty and sentenced to fifteen (15) years’ imprisonment. The Appellant filed his appeal before this Court.
The Appellant argued that the trial Judge failed to give him a fair trial, failed to take into account his evidence and failed to notice the discrepancy between the charge sheet and the evidence on record. He also said that the trial Court did not properly assess the credibility of the witnesses and so arrived at a wrong conclusion leading to a miscarriage of justice. The Applicant also stated that the substituted charge added section 380 (1) of the Code was added without an order of the court and this rendered the charge defective thus vitiating the whole trial.