Criminal conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to do an unlawful act. The agreement may be express or implied, but the offence of Conspiracy is complete once the parties agree to effect an unlawful purpose. It must be noted that Conspiracy is a continuing offence, other persons may join an existing Conspiracy and become parties to it. For example, if X approaches Y and asks him to join him and Z in robbing a bank. Once Y agrees he becomes guilty of Conspiracy to rob. Smart v State (2016) 9 NWLR (Pt. 1518) 447 SC.
The principle of law is that where a trial court had, on a proper evaluation of the evidence against two people charged with an offence comes to the conclusion that the offence was not proved beyond reasonable doubt against one and consequently discharges and acquits him, it cannot convict the other or others of the offence based on the same evidence. In other words, the discharge of a co-accused or a co-conspirator would lead to the discharge of other co-accused or co-conspirator. Osho v State (2018) 13 NWLR (Pt. 1637) 474 SC
Thank you for reading. See you next week.
THELEGALSTANDPOINT 