Understanding Hostile Witnesses in Criminal Trials: A Case Study and Legal Implications, Lecture notes of Law

Download Understanding Hostile Witnesses in Criminal Trials: A Case Study and Legal Implications and more Lecture notes Law in PDF only on Docsity! A hostile witness, not a witness of truth By Obiora Atuegwu Egwuatu RECENT testimonies of some of the prosecution witnesses in the trial of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer to Gen. Abacha and his cohorts in the alleged attempted murder of the Guardian publisher, Mr. Alex Ibru, has brought to the fore, the issue of hostile witness in a criminal trial. It will be recalled that on the 9th of September 2008 at the resumed trial of the accused persons before Hon. Justice Olokoba of the Ikeja high court Lagos, the prosecution witness, No.5 one Mr. Mohammed Abdul (a.k.a. Institute tasks world leaders on economic stability From Roseline Okere AS World markets are collapsing and great countries of the world are facing global financial crises, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), is of the view that the world should re-visit their first principles, go back to basics, question their fundamental ideologies and re-define their vision. President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Chief Lugard Aimiuwu, at his formal investiture as the president/Council chairman of the institute recently in Lagos, said the world economy was tumbling just because the world has failed to follow the necessary steps to move the economies forward. He said, "the world is experiencing tsunamic change. The world's biggest banks are crashing like a pack of cards. Organisations formerly regarded as 'too big to fail' are setting new records in failure." Aimiuwu added, "the world's strongest brand, Brand America, is in decline. Is this a mere hiccup, or fundamental, irreparable/incurable malady? Is this the beginning of the end of this great civilisation? "The sheer capacity of interconnectivity, to generate socio-economic vibrations of seismic proportions is what compels the attention globalisation receives from all comers of the earth. That was why when America was experiencing the worst pangs of Wall 5t ' meltdown' last week, it felt like the whole of Western Civilisation was melting down. Even here in Nigeria when the canary sing too noisily in Niger Delta, oil prices go up in U.S.A. If the strong are having problems, what happens to the weak? Extinction." He said whether the world likes it or not, globalisation is real, stressing that the world now has more bigger and complex markets, fewer and lower barriers, faster and better communications and transportation; freer, easier, and more global capital flows, all pointing in one direction fiercer and more vicious competition for market share globally," he added. He said that Organisations and nations are repositioning for advantage, as product cycles and design cycles become shorter, and planning horizons become shorter, requiring faster reaction cycles. He said marketing was the crucible of creativity, "but we will never get first class products from third class Brand managers, nor achieve cutting edge customer service from third rate sales Force." Speaking on the actualisation of vision 2020, Aimiuwu said that for the nation to actualise it Vision 2020 development initiative and be among top industrialised nations of the world by 2020, it requires the assistance of marketing professionals to push the vision forward. Aimiuwu stressed that the development of the country could only be hinged on the nucleus of proper marketing initiatives. The NIMN boss said the core task that would become paramount as government, through its agencies. Seeks to introduce and get the vision 2020 to work, have to do with what the public response or reaction to it. According to him, the response or reaction of the society to the vision 2020 would determine the success or failure of the programme. He said, "the market for vision 2020 is the entire country, including the relevant segments of the international community. This market is, however, very heterogeneous and selling to it would be rather cumbersome. There is therefore the need, as part of the definition of the vision 2020, to breakdown the total market into fairly homogenous submarkets, a process referred to in marketing parlance as marketing segmentation." To attain vision 2020, Lugard emphasised the need for more creativity, innovation, and invention, all of which he said, are products of a value chain driven by marketing. We must be able to upgrade Brand Nigeria's equity from its current abysmally low 'commodity' level to attain the Highest Brand Equity." He explained that creativity demand that Nigeria question, old assumptions, preconceptions, and traditional orthodoxies, in the management of the economy, to achieve a paradigm shift in performance. Katako) while being led in evidence-in-chief by the prosecution told the court to the consternation of prosecution and perhaps other members of the public, that the prosecution induced him to implicate Major Hamza Al-Mustapha in the attempted murder trial. The prosecution witness went ahead to mention the immediate past Attorney-General of Lagos State, Prof. Yemi Osibajo (SAN) and Mr. Fola Arthur - Worrey, the former Solicitor-General of Lagos State to have given him some monetary gifts. He went further to state as reported in the news media that "Former Attorney-general of the Federation, late Chief Bola Ige (SAN) visited me once and gave me N100, 000.00. Osinbajo and Arthur-Worrey also visited me many times to advise me on what to say in court and they also on some occasions gave me money"