§ Mr. CATHCART WASONasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if he is aware that Philip Coker, an Egba, of Nigeria, was arrested for theft in 1909; that after six months he was released and secured a fresh trial in 1915, the chief justice, Sir J. A. Speed, concluding his judgment by saying: Our position is that there has been a miscarriage of justice and that the means are in our hands to rectify it; and that since then Philip Coker has received no redress, no restoration to position, and no compensation; and if he will make further inquiries into the matter?
§ Lieut.-Colonel AMERYPhilip Coker was found guilty of larceny of Government money in his charge by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Southern Nigeria in January, 1910, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. He was released after serving five months and three days. Nearly six years after he applied to the Full Court of Nigeria for an order to the Judge of the Assize Court to state a case. The Full Court held that material evidence had been admitted at the trial which should, under the law of evidence have been excluded, and quashed the conviction. Coker applied to the Colonial Government for compensation, and the case was very carefully considered in 1916 by the Secretary of State in consultation with the Home Office. It was eventually decided that, though Coker had no legal claim to compensation, the circumstances of the case were so peculiar as to give him an equitable claim to some monetary compensation: and, after consulting the Government of Nigeria and the Chief Justice, the sum of £100 was awarded to Coker in September, 1833W 1916, as an act of grace. The Secretary of State sees no ground for reopening the case.