The Appellants were convicted of rape and each sentenced to
thirty years’ imprisonment and twelve strokes of the cane. Their appeal to the
High Court was dismissed. However, the High Court substituted the conviction of
rape with that of gang rape and sentenced the Appellants to life imprisonment
each. The Appellants, aggrieved by the decision of the High Court, appealed to
the Court of Appeal on the following grounds. First that the High Court erred
in law and in fact in dismissing the appeal in its entirety when there was no
enough evidence to support the charge as no corroborating evidence existed.
Secondly, that the High Court erred in law in convicting the Appellants of Gang
Rape when they had not been charged of the same but charged with a lesser
offence of rape and thirdly that the High Court erred in law in holding that
the duplex charges did not prejudice or embarrass the Appellants in their
defence and no failure of justice was caused, thereby substituting a conviction
of Gang Rape and without calling the Appellants to offer any mitigating factors
against the sentence. The Court considered all the ground raised by the
Appellants.