Vienna, at the beginning of 1909, was still an imperial city, capital of an Empire of fifty million souls stretching from the Rhine to the Dniester, from Saxony to Montenegro. The aristocratic baroque city of Mozart’s time had become a great commercial and industrial centre with a population of two million people. Electric trams ran through its noisy and crowded streets. The massive, monumental buildings erected on the Ringstrasse in the last quarter of the nineteenth century reflected the prosperity and self-confidence of the Viennese middle class; the factories and poorer streets of the outer districts the rise of an industrial working class. To a young man of twenty, without a home, friends or resources, it must have appeared a callous and unfriendly city: Vienna was no place to be without money or a job. The four years that now followed, from 1909 to 1913. Hitler himself says, were the unhappiest of his life. They were also in many ways the most important, the formative years in which his character and opinions were given definite shape.

Hitler speaks of his stay in Vienna as "five years in which I had to earn my daily bread, first as a casual labourer; then as a painter of little trifles." He writes with feeling of the poor boy from the country who discovers himself out of work. "He loiters about and is hungry. Often he pawns or sells the last of his belongings. His clothes begin to get shabby – with the increasing poverty of his outward appearance he descends to a lower social level."

A little further on, Hitler gives another picture of his Vienna days. "In the years 1909-1910 I had so far improved my position that I no longer had to earn my daily bread as a manual labourer. I was now working independently as a draughtsman and painter in water colours." Hitler explains that he made very little money at this, but that he was master of his own time and left that he was getting nearer to the profession he wanted to take up, that of an architect. This is a very highly coloured account compared with the thidence of those who knew him then. Meagre though this hi it is enough to make nonsense of Hitler’s picture of himself as a man who had once earned his living by his hands and then by hard work turned himself into an art student.

According to Konrad Heiden, who was the first man to piece together the scraps of independent evidence, in 1909, Hitler was obliged to give up the furnished room in which he had been living in the Simnon Denk Gasse for lack of funds. In the summer he could sleep out, but with the coming of autumn he found a bed in a doss-house behind Meidling Station. At the end of the year, Hitler moved to a hostel for men at 27 Meldemannstrasse, in the 20

thdistrict of Vienna, over on the other side of the city, close to the Danube. Here he lived, for the remaining three years of his stay in Vienna, from 1910 to 1913.

A few others who knew Hitler at this time have been traced and questioned, amongst them a certain Reinhold Hanisch, a tramp from German Bohemia, who for a time knew Hitler well. Hanisch’s testimony is partly confirmed by one of the few pieces of documentary evidence which have been discovered for the early years. For in 1910, after a quarrel, Hitler sued Hanisch for cheating him of a small sum of money, and the records of the Vienna police court have been statement of Siegfried Loffner, another inmate of the hostel in the Meldemannstrasse who testified that Hanisch and Hitler always sat together and were friendly.

Hanisch describes his first meeting with Hitler in the doss house in Meidling in 1909. "On the very first day there sat next to the bed that had been allotted to me a man who had nothing on except an old torn pair of trousers – Hitler His clothes were being cleaned of lice, since for days he had been wandering about without a roof and in a terribly neglected condition."

Hanisch and Hitler joined forces in looking for work; they beat carpets; carried bags outside the West Station, and did causal labouring jobs, on more than one occasion shovelling snow off the streets. As Hitler had no overcoat, he felt the cold badly. Then Hanisch had a better idea. He asked Hitler one day what trade he had learned." ‘I am a painter,’ was the answer. Thinking that he was a house decorator, I said that it would surely be easy to make money at this trade. He was offended and answered that he was not that sort of painter, but an academician and an artist." When the two moved to the Meldemannstrasse, "we had to think out better ways of making money. Hitler proposed that we should false pictures. He told me that already in Linz he had painted small landscapes in oil, has roasted them in an oven until they had become quite brown and had several times been successful in selling these pictures to traders as valuable old masters." This sounds highly improbable, but in any case Hanisch, who had registered under another name as Fritz Walter, was afraid of the police. "So I suggested to Hitler that it would be better to stay in an honest trade and paint postcards. I myself was to sell the painted cards, we decided to work together and share the money we earned."

Hitler had enough money to buy a few cards, ink and paints. With these he produced little copies of views of Vienna, which Hanisch peddled in taverns and fairs, or to small traders who wanted something to fill their empty picture frames. In this way they made enough to keep them until, in the summer of 1910, Hanisch sold a copy which Hitler had made of a drawing of the Vienna Parliament Building for ten crowns. Hitler, who was sure it was worth far more – he valued it at fifty in his statement to the police – was convinced he had been cheated. When Hanisch failed to return to the hostel, Hitler, who was sure it was worth for more – he valued it at fifty in his statement to the police – was convinced he had been cheated. When Hanisch failed to return to the hostel, Hitler brought a lawsuit against him which end in Hanisch spending a week in prison and the break-up of their partnership.

This was in August, 1910. For the remaining four years before the First World War, first in Vienna, later in Munich, Hitler continued to eke out a living in the same way. Some of Hitler drawings, mostly stiff, lifeless copies of buildings in which his attempts to add human figures are a failure, were still to be found in Vienna in the 1930s, when they had acquired the value of collections’ pieces. Most often he drew posters and crude advertisements for small shops – Teddy Perspiration Powder, Santa Claus selling coloured candles, or St. Stefan’s spire rising over a mountain of soap, with the signature "A Hitler" in the corner. Hitler himself later described these as years of great loneliness, in which his only contacts with other human beings were in the hostel where he continued to live and where, according to Hanisch, "only tramps, drunkards and such spent any time."

After their quarrel Hanisch lost sight of Hitler, but he gives a description of Hitler as he knew him in 1910 at the age of twenty-one. He wore an ancient black overcoat, which had been given him by an old-clothes dealer in the hostel, a Hungarian Jew named Neumann, and which reached down over his knees. From under a greasy, black derby hat, his hair bung long over his coat collar. His thin and hungry face was covered with a black beard above which his large staring eyes were the one prominent feature. Altogether, Hanisch adds, "an apparition such as rarely occurs among Christians."

From time to time Hitler had received financial help from his aunt in Linz, Johanna Polzi and, when she died in March, 1911, it seems likely that he was left some small legacy. In May of that year his orphan’s pension was stopped, but he still avoided any regular work.

Hanisch depicts him as lazy and moody, two characteristics which were often to reappear. He disliked regular work. If he earned a few crowns, he refused to draw for days and went off to a café to eat cream cakes and read newspapers. He had none of the common vices. He neither smoked nor drank and, according to Hanisch, was too shy and awkward to have any success with women. His passions were reading newspapers and talking politics. "Over and over again," Hanisch recalls, "there were days on which he simply refused to work. Then he would hang around night shelters, living on the bread and soup that he got there, and discussing politics, often getting involved in heated controversies."

When he became excited in argument he would shout and wave his arms, until the others in the room cursed him for disturbing them, or the porter came in to stop the noise. Sometimes people laughed at him, at other times they were oddly impressed. "One evening," Hanisch relates, "Hitler went to a cinema where Kellermann’s Tunnel was being shown. In this piece an agitator appears who rouses the working masses by his speeches. Hitler almost went crazy. The impression it made on him was so strong that for days afterwards he spoke of nothing except the power of the spoken word." These outbursts of violent argument and denunciation alternated with moods of despondency.

Everyone who knew him was struck by the combination of ambition, energy and indolence in Hitler. Hitler was not only desperately anxious to impress people but was full of clever ideas for making his fortune and fame –from water divining to designing an aeroplane. In this mood he would talk exuberantly and begin to spend the fortune he was to make in anticipation, but he was incapable of the application and hard work needed to carry out his projects. His enthusiasm would flag, he would relapse into moodiness and disappear until he began to hare off after some new trick or short cut to success. His intellectual interest followed the same pattern. He spent much time in the public library, but his reading was indiscriminate and unsystematic. Accident Rome, the Eastern religions, Yoga, Occultism, Hypnotism, Astrology, Protestantism, each in turn excited his interest for a moment.

He started a score of jobs but failed to make anything of them and relapsed into the old hand-to-mouth existence, living by expedients and little spurts of activity, but never settling down to anything for long.

As time passed these habits became ingrained, and he became more eccentric, more turned in on himself. He struck people as "queer," unbalanced. He gave rein to his hatreds – against the Jews, the priests, the Social Democrats, the Hapsburgs –without restraint.

The few people with whom he had been friendly became tired of him, of his strange behaviour and wild talk. Neumann, the Jew who had befriended him, was offended by the violence of his anti-Semitism; Kanya, who kept the hostel for men, thought him one of the oddest customers with whom he had had to deal. Yet these Vienna days stamped an indelible impression on his character end mind. "During these years a view of life and a definite out granite basis of my conduct at that time. Since then I have extended that foundation very little, I have changed nothing in it…. Vienna was a hard school for me, but it taught me the most profound lesson of my life. "However pretentiously expressed, this is true. It is time to examine what these lessons were.

Just recently, Nigeria was honoured with the Universal Salt Iodization (USI) compliant certification for recording 100% salt iodization at factory, and 98% at both household and retail levels in the country. The USI certification award makes Nigeria the first African country to reach such an enviable target in the fight to eradicate Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD).

In giving Nigeria the award which took place in Istanbul, Turkey, the Global Forum on Micro-nutrient said the country has made unprecedented progress in the campaign against the endemic problem IDD. The feat was made possible through pragmatic regulatory and enforcement action of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); and such has been the destiny of the Agency since April 2001 when Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili was appointed its Director- General. The six years of her stay witnessed unprecedented achievements so much so that NAFDAC has become a household name in Nigeria and a well- respected organisation among members of the international community.

Prior to her appointment as head of NAFDAC, the Agency was identified with poor performance, which led to high incidence of fake drugs, unwholesome food and other substandard products which put the lives of the people at risk and actually resulted in preventable deaths of millions of people. The development naturally attracted biting criticism from the public, who accused the Agency of non-performance.

Having identified the level of unwholesomeness of the food and drug with which the people of Nigeria were fed, and the great danger they posed to the health of the nation, Prof. Dora Akunyili declared war against those perpetrating the acts that were responsible for putting the lives of the people on line and to wipe away those products from the Nigeria market. Today, six years into the battle, Nigerians and indeed members of the international community have awarded her excellent marks; a few of the reasons for their judgments are enumerated below.

From 2001 when she became the Director General of NAFDAC, the Agency has, as at April 2007 carried out over 120 destruction exercises of counterfeit and substandard food and drug products valued at N21 billion. These involved impounding of trailer loads of fake drugs caught by NAFDAC officials, raids on drug depots and shops, outright ban on markets that were identified as centers for fake drug sale, closure of illegal packaged water manufacturing outlets, smashing of fake beer manufacturing plants, arrest of drug marketers, impounding of container load of rotten fish. Others include closure of fake vegetable oil manufacturing plants and fake wine production companies.

*Sanitisation of food and drug industry through well-regulated environment. This has saved the lives of million of Nigerians and non Nigerians residing in the country including women, children and unborn babies. The sanitisation of the regulation process has created confidence in the Nigerian drug industries, thus attracting foreign investors.
*Unequalled public awareness on the dangers inherent in the manufacture, distribution, sale and use of fake and adulterated food and drug products have resulted in the participation of stake holders in the promotion of regulation. This has also raised international consciousness that Nigeria is no longer a dumping ground for fake products.
*Counterfeit drugs in circulation have dropped from an average of 41% in 2001 to less than 16%. Drugs not registered by NAFDAC but are in circulation has dropped from 68% in 2001 to less than 19%.
*Production capacities of local pharmaceutical industries has also risen from 70 in 2001 to 150.
*Through its public awareness campaigns, Nigerians, even in the rural area, now demand to know the expiry date, to see NAFDAC registration No, and other detailed contents of a drug or food products before they buy or consume them.
*Sanitisation of table and sachet water production which has reduced cholera and other water-borne diseases in the country.
*NAFDAC now monitors salt iodization in Nigeria and in this regard, UNICEF rated Nigeria as the first country in Africa to achieve universal salt iodization. NAFDAC is currently working to achieve same in vitamins fortification.
*Less than 1% of bakeries in Nigeria now use potassium bromide as bread enhancer. The rate was 95% in 2001.
*Old industries are expanding while new ones are springing up in the food and cosmetics industries.
*Share prices of pharmaceutical companies quoted in Nigeria stock exchange have continued to be on the upward movement.

*Made in Nigeria drugs are now sold in many African countries, even in the United States which has one of the strictest regulatory instrument on drugs in the world. The confidence on Nigeria drugs has risen so much that drugs made in countries like India are now labeled made in Nigeria to attract patronage.

*Many manufacturers, importers and sellers of fake and expired drugs have been arrested and put out of business. NAFDAC has secured 45 convictions of such dealers while over 56 cases are pending in courts.
*New laboratories have been built across the country for maximum performance in the area of tests of drugs and food products.

*NAFDAC under Prof. Dora Akunyili established a National Pharmacovigilance Centre in September 2004 where people can go and lay complaints if they have negative reactions after taking drugs. Over 400 complaints have been received by the centre.

* Nigeria was admitted as the 74th member of WHO Drug Safety Monitoring Programme.
*NAFDAC has started campaigns to ensure that drugs are purchased following prescriptions from qualified medical personnel.

*NAFDAC has sensitized Nigerians not to take injections except when it is absolutely necessary.
Due to the achievements recorded by NAFDAC under the leadership of Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili, public confidence has been raised so much on the Agency that people do not consider religious and ethnic leanings when the Agency goes out to ban fake products, close up illegal manufacturing outlets or destroy such products.
*The Nigerian government has applauded the achievements of NAFDAC and given it so much support to execute its job. The government has banned importation of drugs through land borders and designated four airports and three seaports for drug importation.

*17 drug brands have been banned from importation because local manufacturers have capacity to produce them.
Constraints
Even through NAFDAC has recorded tremendous achievements in the past six years under Akunyili’s leadership, there are some problems that have hindered its activities. Most of the problems however centre on legal technicalities to prosecute offenders.

There are many countries that have little or no regulation on drug exportation from their countries, thereby leading to attempts by their dubious drug manufacturers to dump their products in developing countries. This has been one major headache in the war against fake and adulterated drug products.

*False declaration by importers on the content of containers and chaotic drug distribution system in the country.
For her dogged determination to rid the nation of fake, adulterated and other unwholesome food and drug products, Prof. Dora Akunyilu has come under severe danger, occasioned by attacks from the barons and syndicates in the business. This has led to an attempt to assassinate her through hired agents who shot at her while she was carrying out selfless service to the nation.

In spite of her travails, Prof. Dora Akunyili has continued to make it clear that she was not prepared to give up on the fight to force criminals in the food and drug products business to close shops. “They are worse than terrorists and armed robbers,” Akunyili told a gathering of Nigerians and foreign diplomats at a seminar for judges which took place at the Sheraton Hotel Abuja, last year. She pledged to continue to fight them even if it will take the last drop of her blood.

While illegal drug dealers and criminals are hurting and wishing Prof. Dora Akunyili evil, millions of Nigerians and members of the international community have continued to decorate the Amazon with laurels, over four hundred of them at the last count. Some of the awards include “One of the 18 Heroes of Time Magazine Worldwide”.” by the Time Magazine, New York (2nd Nov.2006), Honorary Citizen of Georgia by the State of Georgia, USA (June 24, 2006), Integrity Award by Transparency International South Korea (May 25, 2003) Order of the Federal Republic OFR (Dec. 13, 2002), Icon of Hope by president Obasanjo (Oct 2002) and Odi Uko Na’mba (rare gem) from the home front.

As strong indications emerge of a possible reassignment of Prof. Dora Akunyili to a higher national engagement in the days to come, the fear is whether the next person to be appointed as Director General of NAFDAC would be able to sustain the tempo with which she has elevated the Agency from obscurity to a center of international focus, widely known for safeguarding the health of the nation.

ALTHOUGH the incumbent government ought to be winding down its activities, the Ministry of Education recently encoded all the reforms in the education sector under the outgoing Minister, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, in a bill preparatory for submission to the National Assembly. Ordinarily, we support any attempt to revamp the education sector. There is too much decadence in this strategic sector of the country. However, we have reservations whether the contents of the bill have been made public enough to encourage broad participation in form of debates and contributions.

What are the contents of the bill? What is the level of participation of the general public in developing the contents, although the Ministry of Education continues to insist that stakeholders were duly consulted? Even so, why the haste in trying to make a law of the reforms when they have not been exhaustively debated? Which National Assembly will handle the bill? Is it the present lame duck legislative house or the incoming one, during which time Ezekwesili would no longer be in office and a successor may feel differently about the proposed reforms?

The education reforms have come rather late in the day for the Obasanjo administration. It would seem that the outgoing minister was uncertain of what would become of the reforms after her exit from office. This may account for the haste. However, if a policy document has gone through exhaustive debates with participation from a broad spectrum of society then there should be no fear of its being jettisoned by another administration.

The education sector is important to the development process. All policies in this sector ought to be subjected to the rigours of debate and consensus building. The primary schools are in a state of disrepair and poor morale. The secondary schools have not fared better. The teachers are dissatisfied with their working conditions. A teacher who is compelled to work in a hostile environment cannot achieve much. Indeed, he would at best operate at minimum capacity.

At the moment, the state-owned universities are locked down. The umbrella body of Nigerian academics, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is on strike over the failure of government to find solutions to the desperate conditions in the universities and the frustrations of the staff. The perception is that government would rather have students at home than on the campuses. As a result, if ASUU remains on strike for six months, it would serve the interest of the government. Is this the government that can be said to be serious about education reforms?

The focus of the reforms is also problematic and controversial. Essentially, the Ministry of Education has concentrated on scrapping the Higher National Diploma in Polytechnics, changing the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme, and privatising the Federal Government Colleges otherwise known as Unity Schools. Some polytechnics have also been converted into universities without the requisite manpower. In general there has been a show of aggression which is not matched by profundity of thought.

The nation can be revolutionised through education. Recent events, including the last elections, show that the average Nigerian voter is in need of education. The level of illiteracy is still unacceptable. A holistic approach to education, from primary through university level is capable of producing the technological leap which the nation urgently desires.

But funding has been abysmal. A genuinely concerned government would raise the budgetary allocation to somewhere near the UNESCO prescribed minimum. Rather than concentrate on this, the government has been more interested in chasing shadows and playing games with such a strategic sector as education.

We call on the government to make public, particularly to all stakeholders, the contents of the education reforms bill for much broader input and consultation.

Bimbola was not exactly a beauty queen, but she was beautiful enough to make people comment that she was fair to behold. Her neighbours would say she was a very lively but quiet woman who gave whatever she did a touch of commitment.
Her marriage, like most marriages was not fantastic. She and the father of two of her children, Bolade were not like the famed Romeo and Juliet. Theirs was not a perfect marriage. Maybe that would not have caught anybody’s attention if not for that fact that they sometimes acted like the cartoon characters, Tom and Jerry with Bolade giving more power to the Jerry in him with the occasional punches here and there all aimed at his wife.
"She wouldn’t talk at first when he first began to beat her. She would come with a swollen face and refuse to say what happened. Sometimes she would be found crying silently but she always refused to say what the matter was", her sister Yomi said.
Well, as much as she tried to hide what heavy loads she harboured in her heart, the bruises, black eye and limp she got occasionally made her talk. It wasn’t long before it became obvious that her husband, Bolade had been practising some martial arts (or something akin to that) on her.
Well, things have fallen apart and the centre can no longer hold Bimbola died. Indeed, that Wednesday April 26 was a day, which would have seen Bolade getting a good piece of his own cake as Bimbola’s family almost descended on him. He was lucky to have been saved from being put in the grave dug if not for the timely intervention of the members of the landlords association of his Oke-Aro, Ogun area.
Bimbola’s family had good reasons for desiring to lynch Bolade alive.
"In fact, ours is a cultured family, if not, we would have burnt him alive. He should be the one in that grave", a male member of Bimbola’s family said.
There was a lot of noise. Members of both families had something to say. Bimbola’s family was mad with rage, Bolade’s family felt they had to defend their son. Some neighbours cried, some showed anger, some lamented. Everybody either talked or moved. But Bimbola could not. She lay still and unaware of all that was happening around her. She was now nothing more than a being meant for the unpolished wooden casket placed on a stool in a corner of the compound.
‘Bimbola is dead", wailed Yomi. "Bolade has killed her with beatings. When he knew that he didn’t want her again, he should have sent her packing instead of killing her and making us come and bury her. Bolade is wicked!"
Many of the tenants in the eight-room apartment they shared before her death could talk. But from the way they nodded their heads at what Yomi was saying, it was apparent that they couldn’t but agree with her.
What really happened? It was very important to know. So many people wanted to talk. There were different accounts on the cause of Bimbola’s death, but one fact that echoed undisputed around the Oke-Ayo Close,Cele Bus Stop, Oke-Aro, Iju Ishaga neighbourhood of the couple is the fact Bolade’s major pastime in the last few years is beating his wife silly.
If neighbours could not be believed totally (after all, they were not living in the same rooms with the couple), the account of Tunde, late Bimbola’s son from a previous marriage could be taken seriously.
Tunde who was supposed to be writing his GCE that very day was burying his mother with pains and agony. He couldn’t have had anything good to say about the stepfather who beat his mother up at the slightest provocation.
"She had been sick for a few days. She had typhoid fever and was going to a nearby clinic for treatment. That was just last week. She was trying to be strong when they had an argument. Daddy wanted to send me on an errand and my mum said I wasn’t at home. They were forever fighting because he did not like seeing me around. So last Tuesday after she came back from the clinic, he said he wanted to see me and she said I wasn’t around. They must have had one of their arguments and the next thing was that he locked her up in the room and began to beat her. She was screaming for help and the tenants in the house were begging him to open the door but he refused. By the time he opened the door, she had fainted and they had to rush her to the hospital. She came back home that same day but she began to complain of headache after that. It was the same headache and cold she complained about till she was rushed to the hospital on Monday (April 23) and she died yesterday".
Tunde could not be consoled. His father died when he was too young to know him and now his mother, the breadwinner of the family is dead.
One of their former tenants, Iya Morili did not want to talk but pushed with grief, she said, "Iya Tunde was the one making sure that her three children did not lack. She was once selling fried fish and prawns. But the man kept on complaining that she was spending too much time on that business. She had to change to another trade. She started selling medicines but even that was not enough to pay her children’s school fees. She moved from that to other businesses just to sustain the home but while everybody commended her efforts, her husband paid back by beating her. It was a common thing for him to beat her and we all wondered why she didn’t leave".
It is not difficult to know why she did not leave him; like most Nigerian women from the South West, they do not like people counting for them the number of men they have married. Maybe if she had left, she would have still been around, strong and happy. That submission was embraced by all the neighbours without any exception.
It was found out that apart from his hobby of beating her, the other thing he was known for was his habit of drinking paraga, the local gin sold by the roadside.
"She told me that she was always praying that he would stop this habit of drinking paraga, but the more she prayed, the more he went deep into it. She was a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Enilolobo Bus Stop for a long time. That was even the church were they got married in 2002. He did not stop drinking so she went to another church where they pray harder, Fountain of Peace, CAC Church, Powerline Bus Stop, Iju. She managed to get him to the chuch on tow or more occasions and she was happy that he would change. Like when she was in Redeemed, she was also hardworking in the church and she was an usher. But his drinking was a great setback sometimes on worship days. He would beat her and make her stay at home", Ayi, a friend of hers said.
Well, Bolade did not change his leopard-like skin and today he is being suspected to be behind the death of his wife, which people think he is trying to cover up as typhoid fever.
The story might not end there because people are asking why he ran away immediately Bimbola died and it took hours of search before he was fished out to do the dust to dust rights.
That is not all, the family are asking why he did not call any one of them when she reached that point where she could n longer talk. Questions and more questions. Bolade at the graveside dug behind his late father’s house where they both lived did not have any answer. But he was able to have a face-off with one of Bimbola’s relatives. And his family say the worst that would happen is for Bimbola’s family to lock him up and they would get a lawyers and it would go on from there.

The Supreme Court has ordered two men, Mustapha Mohammed and Lukeman Aiyegbami, who beheaded a young man for ritual for the purpose of making money, be killed by hanging.

In a judgment delivered by the court, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday, the apex court upheld the conviction of the accused persons by an Ogun State High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The incident took place on August 11, 1995 . On that day, one of the convicts had sent his brother to lure the unsuspecting Oladipupo Fasola, the deceased.

That same day he was beheaded and his head taken to a herbalist for ritual.

Justice Niki Tobi, who delivered the lead judgment with which four other justices of the court concurred, held that from the circumstantial evidence surrounding the death of Fasola, it was obvious that the two convicted persons conspired to kill him to make money.

Justice Tobi summarised the case thus, ”The prosecution‘s case is that on August 11, 1995 , one Asmiyu Salawu told Oladipupo Fasola (the deceased) that the Ist appellant, Mustapha Mohammed, wanted to see him.

”The deceased left to see Mohammed. After a long time, the deceased did not return. The Prosecution Witness 1 went in search of him. He got to Mohammed‘s house and asked for the whereabouts of the deceased. Mohammed denied seeing him.

”A report of a missing person was made to the police.

”Mohammed was arrested. After the arrest, he took the police to a bush, where the headless corpse of the deceased was unearthed from a shallow grave.

”The appellants, Mohammed and Aiyegbani were charged with conspiring to commit murder and murder of Oladipupo Fasola.

”The trial judge convicted the appellants accordingly.”

Their appeal to the court of appeal was dismissed and they consequently appealed to the Supreme Court.

In their appeal, they said that they were not sufficiently linked to the murder of the deceased person.

After reviewing the arguments and the facts of the case, Justice Tobi came to the following conclusions:

That the 1st appellant (Mohammed) sent his younger brother, Ashimiyu, to call the deceased.

That the deceased answered the call of the 1st appellant and went to the house of the 1st appellant and was received by both the 1st and 2nd appellants.

That the 2nd appellant used a charm, ‘subusere‘ to hit the deceased on the chest and he became weak and fell down.

The indecent burial of the deceased at the plot of the 1st appellant.

The delivery of the head of the deceased to the 3rd accused person by the 1st appellant on 11th August, 1995 (the day of the murder) ‘to make awure‘, that is a concotion for money making.

The appellants were the last persons with the deceased alive.

Justice Tobi held that the trial court made similar findings. He held that there was no perversity in the findings.

He said that even though no one found the appellants killing the deceased, they were sufficiently linked to the death.

He said, ”It is clear from the totality of the evidence that the death of the deceased was not just a probable consequence, but a direct consequence of the prosecution of the unlawful purpose to murder the deceased.

”The appeal is accordingly dismissed. I affirm the decision of the Court of Appeal. I also affirm the conviction of the appellants for conspiracy to murder and murder of Oladipupo Fasola and the sentence of death passed on them.