By O. G. ORJI ESQ.

The case of Miss Chidinma Ojukwu has its origin in the death of Super Tv Boss, Mr Michael Usifo Ataga of which a decision is yet to be taken by the Court respecting the guilt or otherwise of the accused. While inside Kirikiri Prison, the accused, Miss Chidinma Ojukwu recently participated in a beauty pageant competition tagged “Miss Cell 2022” and was glamorously crowned winner in the end. Now, the glamour which accompanied her installment as “Miss Cell 2022” has a raised questions respecting the propriety of her participation in such a glamorous event considering the fact that she’s standing trial as a suspect in a murder case.

So, the legal question that would arise in the circumstance is, whether or not Miss Chidinma Ojukwu’s glamorous installment as “Miss Cell 2022” is not within her rights in view of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and other relevant laws in Nigeria?

A number of legal principles abound in the Nigerian Criminal Justice System, one of which is the Presumption of innocence in favour of a person accused of any criminal offence. Now this principle of Presumption of innocence has its foundation in Section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which states that:
“Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty.”

The above provision of the Constitution clearly forbids any person from labeling an accused person a criminal until the prosecution has successfully proved the guilt of the said accused person.
The Supreme Court has in abundant cases re-iterated this principle of law in their pronouncements, for instance, in the case of Nkie v. FRN (2014) LPELR-22877 (SC) held as follows:
“If a person charged with murder or any other offence which the law prescribes the death penalty pleads guilty to it, a plea of not guilty is to be recorded by the Court on his behalf and the case heard as if he had pleaded not guilty. In any other circumstance, his actual plea is to be recorded”.

I chose to cite the above case because of its congruity with the case of the recently glamorously crowned “Miss Cell 2022”, Miss Chidinma Ojukwu whose installment was undertaken during the pendency of her murder trial. In simple terms what Supreme Court is saying in Nkie v. FRN (Supra) is that in compliance with the Principle of Presumption of innocence, even if a person charged with killing another or any other offence for which death penalty is prescribed, pleads guilty of the said offence in court, the court is to record a plea of not guilty for the accused and the prosecution must still go ahead and prove their case in order to rebut the presumption.

I think that it will be apt for me at this point to highlight on the fact that the presumption of innocence is only rebuttable by the prosecution where it successfully proves the offence or guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. This position is founded on the Evidence Act, 2011. Section 135 (2) provides that:
“The burden of proving that any person is guilty of a crime or wrongful act is, subject to the provisions of Section 139 of this Act, on the person who asserts it, whether the commission of such act is or is not directly in issue in action.”

It is hereby submitted that the said Section 139 does not relieve the prosecution of its duty to prove beyond reasonable doubt in anyway, neither does it shift or contemplate to shift that burden away from the prosecution. A combined reading of Section 36(5) of the Constitution, Section 135(2) and Section 139(1) of the Evidence Act, clearly shows that the prosecution maintains the burden of proving his case beyond reasonable doubt, which he shares with no one, and upon the discharge of the duty, the burden of casting reasonable doubt now shifts to the accused.
In the absence of any judgment of a court pronouncing on the guilt of the newly installed Beauty Queen, it would be an effort in futility for anyone to condemn her glamorous installation because the principle of presumption of innocence is still effectively operating in her favour. The law is settled that until that presumption is rebutted by the prosecution by prove beyond reasonable doubt, for now, it is legally logical and sound to state that Miss Chidinma Ojukwu is still innocent and therefore within her rights to participate in and be glamorously installed as “Miss Cell 2022”.

On a lighter note, I wish her a wonderful reign as “Miss Cell 2022”.

Orji Goodhope Okechukwu Esq.
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