Summary of Deduwa v. The State

Deduwa v. The State

In this case, the appellant sent letter to the trial judge accusing of bias and other types of insinuation which was contemptuous to the court. The appellant were fined for contempt. It was held on appeal that it is the inherent jurisdiction of a court of record to punish for contempt and not to try for the purpose of finding the contempt not guilty, that the compulsion of the appellants to go into the witness box in their defense is a breach of the provisions of Section 22 (9) of the constitution of Nigeria. The trial court should have just ask the appellants into the dock where they might show cause and punish them accordingly.