INTRODUCTION
The primary and basic ingredient of the criminal justice system is the law setting up the courts without the law there will be no definitive system of criminal justice, in any query about the criminal justice system we must start with the enabling law. We must understand that the law or the courts as we have it today evolved over a period of time, and therefore it is appropriate to go into history and learn how these laws evolve, how the courts and the machinery of justice developed in Nigeria, this will give us a deeper and quicker understanding of the current status of the system. Secondly we must appreciate the fact that the court system and the entire machinery of justice is not only complex but it is quite intricately interwoven and the ordinary man on the street may fund it most difficult to understand its workings and interdependence. The difference between the Customary Law and the criminal justice system, and how the law declares the well known rules of customary law as void and unenforceable may be beyond the understanding of a layman.Thirdly, most of the current institutions and the entire judicial system not only evolve from the received English laws adopted by Nigeria or indirectly imposed by the colonial masters, there has been the use of Customary Laws of the people which were not entirely discarded but allowed to be a part of the laws of Nigeria, here we must try to grasp some of these very interesting developments in the legal system for a thorough and deeper understanding of its intricacies.
table of content
- administration of courts system
- ancilliary orders
- development of the court system
- evolution of the nigerian police
- imprisonments’ intended and unintended effects
- purposes of imprisonment
- state courts in nigeria
- abuse of power and constraints
- appellate courts in nigeria
- courts and justice administration in nigeria
- inferior courts in nigeria
- non custodial sentence
- powers and responsibilities of the police
- structure of the nigerian police force
Judicial System before Colonization
Before the introduction of the British system of government and its courts in Nigeria, each tribe had developed their separate Customary Law that binds the people. In the northern States, the Emir as the Supreme Ruler with his advisers constitutes the Supreme Court of the land. They resolve land, family and inheritance disputes. In most cases, these cases are referred to the Alkalis, who are teachers on Islamic law. In the west, the Oba in council adjudicates on all issues brought before them, and they applied strict Customary Law in resolving the disputes. While in the East, the Elders in Council and the age grades help very much in settling disputes and in the application of Customary Law. All the tribes in Nigeria also have a set of Customary laws regulating criminal conducts in the society, known as customary criminal law which covers all known crimes in the society, like theft, rape, murder, manslaughter etc. and they all have powers within their communities to impose fines, imprisonment, banishment from the community, death etc; they also impose punishments like, public caning, public apology, offering of sacrifices or appeasing the gods.The Customary System of both civil and criminal adjudication are very well known to the whole community and observed.
Customary Law
Though much of our laws today come under the influence of English law brought into Nigeria as a result of colonization. Before the advent of colonization there is what we call customary law. (As we learnt above). Customary law has been described as body of law that evolved from the custom of the native people. As opposed to the so called civilized countries, whose laws are normally erected by a sovereign or supreme legislature, customary law simply evolved from a pattern of behavior of the people, (accepted norms of behavior) As soon as the people accept a particular norm it is clothed in legal validity, while those that have not been adopted or once adopted but has been abandoned will no longer qualify as a customary law.The next question is the issue of sanction, all civilized laws are backed by sanctions, where there is a breach of customary law, the people themselves normally will collectively determine the appropriate sanction. In some societies in pre – colonial Nigeria, there are Chiefs and Obas, both in the North and Western Nigeria, who have been authorized by the people to serve as Judges, in most cases the Obas or Chiefs will normally sit in Council and hardly ever determine any issue without consultations with the elders within the community, in effect all sanctions are collectively determined and the type and gravity of the sanctions for particular offence is carefully noted, as a guide in case of future breach. The sanction for an offence is therefore uniform and regular, though each case is examined and determined or its own merit.
Customary law has a distinctive characteristic of being totally unwritten and only known to its subjects. It is not all the practices and customs that have the force of law, many practices are merely complied with without any fear of being sanctioned when there is a breach, while some that touches the life and well being of the community or affects the well being of the community is normally backed with sanctions. The court system though seemingly rudimentary is quite effective, and there are also local police attached to the kings court to enforce the decisions of the courts, while the council of elders and other family heads also cooperate to ensure strict observance to the sanctions.
The Courts in the Colonial Era
In the year 1900 there was a change of sovereignty in the territory now called Nigeria. Hitherto, the societies are governed by themselves and their customs. But colonization brought the British in Nigeria as the supreme power having complete jurisdiction over the country. The obvious result is that the English laws were imported and applied in Nigeria, while simultaneously the British engaged in making laws for the good governance of Nigeria. The result is drastic, in the words of Lord Dunedin, “in all cases (of change of sovereignty) the result is the same. Any inhabitant of the territory can make good in municipal courts established by the new sovereign only such rights as that sovereign has, through his officers, recognized such rights as he had under the rule of predecessors avail him nothing”.The effect of the above is tremendous on the customary law. In the first instance, Native law and custom is recognized as an established law, though the law must be differentiated from the mere practice having no legal status. It also follows that upon being established as the law of the people, the whole apparatus of Coercion of the state is made available to enforce the law. The fresh problem is proof of the relevant customary law and its establishment.
The Native courts established by the English colonial masters were enjoined to apply native law and customs and to put the laws into writing. This power was transferred to native Authorities in 1945. Such rules once made and approved have the force of law.
Though the British colonialists allow application of the customary law, the law must still have to pass certain tests before it could be applied, it was these tests that conclusively changed the form and content of customary law. The tests are;
Repugnancy to natural justice, equity and good conscience Incompatibility with local enactments.
In the field of criminal law, initially the native courts were allowed to administer the customary criminal law alongside the criminal code in 1959, the Western and Northern Regional Governments in Nigeria abolished all criminal jurisdiction under customary law unless the customary offence may have been embodied in a law made by a local council or a native authority.
In 1960, the Nigerian Constitution put the final nail on the coffin of customary criminal law, when it declares that, no person shall be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefore is presented in a written law.
British Courts
In Southern Nigeria before the amalgamation of the country, a single court named Supreme Court served the region. The Supreme Court consisted of the Chief Justice and a small number of pursue judges.The court operated as a court of law and it sometimes apply the doctrines of equity. As a court of law, its powers are unlimited. It operates as 3 organs:
Full Court: Appeals from the divisional courts normally go to the full court, sitting with the Chief Justice as the presiding judge, with at least two other judges of the Divisional courts.
Divisional Court: Southern Nigeria was then divided into divisions, and each operates with a judge of the supreme court exercising the original jurisdiction of the supreme court of and also serves as court of Appeal for native and District Courts.
District Courts: The Administrative Officer of each district is the ex-officio commissioner of the Supreme Court, in that capacity, he constituted a court called the District court charged with limited jurisdiction. It was an inferior court.
After amalgamation of the country, there was established 3 main types of court,
- The Supreme Court
- Provincial Courts and
- Native courts
The protectorate courts later replaced by the High Courts and amalgamation court.
The Supreme Court
The West African Court of Appeal
Court System under the Federal Constitution
Upon coming into force of the 1954 Federal Constitution, each region (Western, Northern and Eastern Regions of Nigeria) was empowered to establish its own court. By virtue of the Regional Constitutions, each established its High Court, Magistrate court, customary or Native courts as the case may be Appeals lie from the High Court of a Region to the Supreme Court.The Privy Council still remained the highest court in the land until 1963 when the constitution of that year was enacted and Nigeria became a Republic.
From the history of the court system in Nigeria and the development of our laws, it is noteworthy that the Regional Laws draw their source from the same received laws and the Federal enactments, most of the laws were re-named as state laws. The decisions of the Regional High Courts are entitled the greatest weight in other regions especially where the law remains the same. In criminal procedure, there is almost uniformity in the South, while in the North, criminal procedure code 1960 has been enacted to replace the criminal procedure code for that region, which in some respect differ from the Southern criminal procedure Act.
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