CRIMINAL LAW REFORM IN NORTHERN NIGERIA RETROGRADE LEGISLATION IN NORTHERN NIGERIA?
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1961.tb02191.x |
| Date | 01 September 1961 |
| Published date | 01 September 1961 |
| Author | Justin Price |
CRIMINAL LAW REFORM IN
NORTHERN NIGERIA
RETROGRADE LEGISLATION IN
NORTHERN NIGERIA?
A
NEW
Penal Code law and a new Criminal Procedure Code law haxe
very recently been enacted in Northern Nigeria. Their significance
and detail appear to have escaped notice and
it
may be doubted
whether some of the provisions of these laws are compatible with
the Human Rights Legislation in the Federation of Nigeria.
The Penal Code contains what is now the substantive criminal
law of that country; the Criminal Procedure Code contains the
method whereby the Penal Code is to be enforced and, in relation
to criminal process, fixes the rights and liabilities of the subject.
The importance of these two pieces of legislation to the Northern
Nigerian subject is therefore substantial.
Until the introduction of these Codes, the legal system of
Northern Nigeria was dual. There existed, with virtually concur-
rent jurisdiction, native courts presided over by Alkalai administer-
ing Moslem law of the Maliki school and a number of magistrates’
courts with professional stipendiary magistrates, usually members
of the bar, having a civil and
a
criminal jurisdiction. There was, of
course, a High Court with a jurisdiction corresponding broadly to
that of the High Court of Justice, the Court of Criminal Appeal
and the Court of Appeal in England.
It
was possible to appeal
from the Moslem courts to the Appellate Division of the High Court.
The magistrates’ jurisdiction, in the case of Chief Magistrates,
empowered them to impose sentences of up to five years’ imprison-
ment in criminal matters and to try civil issues where the subject-
matter of the claim was up to
2500.
Magistrates Grade
I
had a
lesser jurisdiction.
In addition, there were a number of mixed native courts of very
limited jurisdiction which administered local native custom and
dealt with minor criminal offences.
The magistrates’ courts derived their jurisdiction from the
Nigerian Criminal and Nigerian Criminal Procedure Codes. These
consisted, in the main, of codified English criminal law and proce-
dure and were common to all parts of Nigeria. The criminal law
and procedure of both the Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria
and of Lagos are derived today solely from this legislation and
administered by both African and English magistrates and judges,
all of whom are professionals in the sense that they are memberci of
the bar.
604
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