CSS 152 MAIN.pdf - National Open University of Nigeria

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CSS 152 INTRODUCTION TO NIGERIA CRIMINAL LAW 2 show how crime could be identified and even distinguished from what it is not. 3.0 MAIN CONTENT 3.1 Sources of Nigerian Criminal Law The important source of Nigerian Criminal Law is the English common law which is the law created by the custom of the people and decisions of judges in England. But what appears to be the dominant source of Nigerian Criminal law are the various statutory enactments such as the constitution, the Acts of the National Assembly, the Government Councils and Subsidiary Legislations of government department. It may also include Decrees and Edicts on criminal matters promulgated during military regimes. The above statutes which we have mentioned may be grouped into three distinct categories. The first are the many statutes made by the Federal, States and Local Government Councils in Nigeria which take care of various technical or specific offences whose purpose is to regulate the conduct of the people through sanctions or punishments contained in such offences. The second category of criminal statutes are the Criminal Code Act, cap 77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and the Penal Code Law of 1959 which came into effect in 1960. While the Criminal Code applies in the Southern States of Nigeria, the Penal Code applies in the Northern States of Nigeria. These two codes criminalize many offences which are intended to regulate the conduct of the people. Another source of Criminal Law, though secondary in classification, is judicial Precedent which manifests in courts decisions interpreted to give precision to some difficult legislative provisions. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1 1. What are the sources of Nigerian Criminal Law? 2. Can you validly say that our Criminal Law has an origin? 3.2 History of Criminal Law in Nigeria In pre-colonial Nigeria, there was in existence, some systems of customary criminal law which regulated the standard of behaviour of the people. They were generally unwritten.
CSS 152 INTRODUCTION TO NIGERIA CRIMINAL LAW The Moslem community in the North had a highly developed system of Moslem law of crime with different schools, though; the maliki was the most dominant. Paganism was also practiced with its unique Paganism criminal law. The Lagos colony had the modern English common is law which was introduced by ordinance No. 3 of 1863. The various political evolutions which went on in the various protectorates and colonies also led to the development of criminal law in Nigeria. In 1904, Lord Lugard, the governor of the Northern protectorate introduced by proclamation a Criminal Code which incidentally was made applicable to the whole of Nigeria in 1916 after the famous amalgamation in 1914. Following intense advocacy by the Northerners, the Penal Code Law, No. 18 of Northern Region was introduced in that Region. That exercise also restricted the Criminal Code of 1916 to apply only in the Southern part of Nigeria. The Penal Code was tailored against the background of the Cod of Sudan which itself had its origin from the Indian Penal Code of 1860. Elsewhere in Nigeria and particularly in some part of the South, there was also the application of customary criminal law. At the 1958 Constitutional Conference, it was decided that Customary Criminal Law be abolished in Nigeria and that decision was articulated in the 1959 Bill of Rights developed by Nigerians and submitted to the Colonial Government in London. The British Home Government approved the request and same was incorporated in section 22 (10) of the repealed 1963 Republican Constitution. That section of the constitution read “No person shall be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefore is prescribed in a written law”. The foregoing was the basis for the court’s decision in the case of Aoko V. Fagbemi (1961) I All M 400. In that case, the court held that a woman cannot now be convicted for adultery (a morally reprehensible conduct) which has not been elevated to the level of a crime in the Criminal Code. At the moment, Nigeria operates a dual Code system because of the applicability of the Criminal Code and the Penal Code. Furthermore, for effective administration of Criminal Law in our courts, the law of criminal procedure was codified as Criminal Procedure code of 1960 for 3
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