No Case Submission in Nigerian Criminal Trials: Has Delta State of Nigeria Abolished it?

Serious legal issues have cropped up since the enactment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 in the Federation of Nigeria and the domestication of the law by some or all the States of the Federation. One of the important strictures surrounding the enactment of the law shall dominate this study. It is the doctrine of ‘no case submission.’ For the purpose of this study, in a ruling of a trial Magistrates’ Court sitting at Abbi in Charge No. MAB/22c/2019 Commissioner of Police v. Sunday Usuh the trial Magistrate, His Worship, Edema Doris (Mrs.) Senior Magistrate Grade 1, ruled on the 27th day of May, 2023 that ‘The most recent law of the State which is the Administration of Criminal Justice Law does not make provision of a no case submission. The law does not entertain it. So therefore the defendant is called upon to open his defence in accordance with section 492(3) of the ACJL 2017. The matter is adjourned to the 24th day of June, 2022 for defence.’ Is it true? The facts of the case in Charge No MAB/22c/2019 Commissioner of Police v. Sunday Usuh shall be extensively considered in this discourse. Can a State law do away with the fundamental rights of a citizen as guaranteed by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and notorious judicial precedence or case law on the point of law? This paper which adopts the doctrinal method seeks to review the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2017 of Delta State vis-à-vis the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and the provision of section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. It will also consider the impact of the State law on judicial precedence and the constitutional rights of a defendant to appeal against any ruling not favourable to him. It concludes that the law is irregular and contrary to well established constitutional provisions and recondite principles of procedural law and should be amended

Hurdles in Joinder: Case of Professor Enu, C.I.I. and Ndokwa West L.G.C., Delta State Nigeria

Joinder of parties in litigation is one recurrent decimal in the administration of civil justice in Nigeria. It is because of its complexity that the theory of representative action developed so that parties who have similar interests in a subject matter in litigation can allow one of their own to institute an action in their behalf usually called class action. Representative actions are popular in family, associational and organizational settings. This study is a critical conversation around the circumstances that gave rise to a joinder application in NWACC/37/2019 Chief Mrs. Rita Enu v. Melody Ogwezzy and Community Integrity Initiative where the defendants in the suit tried to join Professor Emmanuel Ifeanyichukwu Enu, the spouse of the plaintiff and Ndokwa West Local Government Council in an action concerning the naming and allocation of Street numbers in Bishop Titus Enu Close, Kwale Delta State. The study which adopts doctrinal method surveyed the claims and counter-claims in the suit and the evidence in the case and interrogated the judicial authorities in the area of joinder of parties in civil litigation. It critically raises the primary facts which the plaintiff relied upon in suing the defendants and presented the evidence elicited from cross examination of the plaintiff that yielded the factual circumstances that the defendants capitalized upon to raise a Motion on Notice for joinder. Although the joinder was swiftly dismissed by the trial court, an appeal to the High Court of Justice, Kwale was subsequently transferred to the Delta State Customary Court of Appeal, Cabal Point, Asaba where the appeal succeeded in parts: while the Local Government Council was ordered to be joined, the joinder of Professor Enu was refused. The study finds that there are clearly laid down guiding principles that a court follows in the determination of every application touching on joinder the Locus classicus of which is laid down in Green v. Green. It was further found that although the grant or refusal of an application for joinder is an exercise within the discretion of the court, which ought to be exercised judicially and judiciously and the appellate courts do not form the habit of interfering often with the exercise of a lower court’s discretion, in this case under review, the court of appeal intervened essentially because the issue of fair hearing was invoked as the Delta State Customary Court of Appeal, Asaba determined that the defendants had sufficiently demonstrated an indictment of the Local Government Council in the performance of its constitutional responsibility and thus ordered that it should be joined to be confronted with the case and complaints of the defendants

How Oil Companies Spark Disputes in Nigeria: The Case of Energia and Ozegbe of Ogume

The role that oil companies have come to play in their host families in the process of tapping oil has come up for close scrutiny in this study. So much of the social instability and disequilibrium that have been experienced in the host families is traceable to the methodologies that the oil companies have used in governing their operations within the host communities. This study which adopts the doctrinal method surveys and interrogates the circumstances in which one of the fiercest land disputes in Ogbole Ogume in Ndokwa West Local Government Area, Delta State was sparked by the appearance of Energia Nig. Ltd in the Ogume-Emu space. The dispute brought into collision course, the Ossai Ogboso Onah and Umu-Ozegbe families and in the process, dragged in Ogbole, Okololi, Obodougwa and Emu communities into one of the most pernicious native wars upon the Ukwuani space. This study is circumscribed within the facts that arose in NWACC/46/2012 Moses Asuai Onowu & 2Ors v. Onyekachi Ossai & 3Ors which was filed before the Ndokwa West Area Customary Court holden at Utagba-Ogbe, kwale. It went on appeal before the Delta State Customary Court of Appeal, Cable Point, Asaba as Appeal No: DCCA/28A/2016 Moses Asuai Onowu & 2Ors v. Onyekachi Ossai & 3Ors and eventual ended up presently at the Court of Appeal, Asaba as Appeal No: CA/AS/265/2016 Onyekachi Ossai v. Moses Asuai Onowu & 2Ors before Justices Ignatius Igwe Aguba, Abimbola Osargue Obaseki-Adejumo and Misitura Bolaji-Yusuff (JJCA) delivering the lead judgment. The parties mentioned in this study are not fictitious as such attempt shall be made to focus more on the facts than the personages. The reasons that gave rise to the dispute shall be highlighted more than the natural persons and communities involved. It is noted that even though Energia Nig. Ltd was not made a party in the dispute, its role was palpable and the influence it wielded against the rightful owners of the land in dispute was also touchable. The subterranean influence it had over the decision making process at the various stages of the dispute was dominant even though it was not openly acknowledged by the Judges and the parties. The study finds that oil companies are indictable for sparking off disputes in Nigeria. They seem to regale in it. They seem to set one brother against the other and while the litigation runs through the tortuous layers of courts in Nigeria up to the Supreme Court, they gain firm control over the subject matter (res) of the litigation and tap the resources to their hearts’ content and neutralize the parties in dispute. They use ‘divide and rule’ and sometimes plot the elimination of whole communities in order for mindless exploitation of mineral resources to take place

Revisiting Defence of Claim of Right in Nigerian Criminal Law through Elimuya v. Police

The defence of bonafide claim of right under Nigerian criminal law is an important menu in the consideration of the defences open to a defendant in a criminal trial. In Charge No MAB/43c/2020 Commissioner of Police v. Chief Paul Idima Obi Elimuya the defence came up for consideration before the learned trial Senior Magistrate Grade 1, Edema Doris (Mrs.) sitting at the Magistrates’ Court, Abbi in Delta State, Nigeria. Because of the intricate nature of the defence and the manner in which it was considered in the above mentioned charge, this study is actuated towards revisiting the defence under the Nigerian criminal procedure law and determine whether given the factual circumstances in which the defence arose, the trial court was in the right footing in rejecting the defence as made during the trial proceedings in Elimuya’s case. This study would consider the forgoing issue in relation to the appeal which the defendant later took out against the judgment of the learned trial Magistrate to the High Court of Justice, Kwale Delta State, Nigeria. This study uses the doctrinal method relying on judicial decisions and other relevant statutory instruments in the area of the law under consideration. It uses the locus classicus on the subject area of the law in Nigeria (Nwakire v State) to interrogate both the facts yielded in Elimuya v Police and the judgment delivered by the trial court on 15th October, 2022. As this study is essentially an academic exercise, the aim is to highlight the importance of the defence in criminal procedure law, demonstrating the circumstances under which it is to be raised and upheld and the controversies surrounding its application under Nigerian law. The study finds that the facts in Elimuya v Police were on all fours with the circumstances under which the defence ought to have been upheld and the refusal of the learned trial Magistrate in upholding same led to miscarriage of justice and to the appeal. The study therefore recommends that whenever the question whether the defence of claim of right is applicable during a trial, the trial court and indeed an appellant court should look out for the essential elements of the defence as outlined in this study

Defamation: How Oil Companies Spark Disputes in Nigeria: The Case of Energia Ltd. and Emu-Obodeti Community

This paper is the third in a three-pronged study of the activities and effects of the marginal farm out by Elf Nigeria Ltd to Energia Ltd on the three critical communities hosting the farmee and more importantly on the negative impact that association with Energia Ltd has had on host-families in the three communities of Ogbole-Ogume, Emu-Ebendo and Emu-Obodeti. This study which adopts doctrinal method tries to survey the negative impacts through court litigation. The court processes are critically brought to the fore to demonstrate that even though Energia Ltd was not party to the cases, its presence and activities gave rise to the disputes. Of the three communities, it was in this particular study that many lives were lost and human security concerns were raised arising from the violent conflicts and factional approaches in which the disputes were fought outside the court. Energia Ltd has been unable to go into operations in Obodeti because nerves have been frayed. It was found that so much stock was placed on the beneficial expectations from the economic activities of Energia Ltd that members of the community became so fractious that the commensality associated with such micro communities before the advent of Energia Ltd was betrayed and took flight. Even family members became enemies on the eve of the coming of Energia Ltd to the extent that they began to eliminate one another in the night before dawn such that ‘with the blood flowing on the street’ before operation could even begin, Energia Ltd retreated. It was therefore concluded that not much blame could be apportioned to Energia Ltd. More had depended on the greed and violent dispositions of the factions identified in this study and it is recommended that formal and informal economies should grow outside the notions of oil and gas as the mainstay of the economy

Organizational Behaviour and Non-Registration of Nigerian Bar Association, Kwale Branch

The desire to have the Nigeria Bar Association, Kwale registered by the national body had been the consuming passion of the lawyers in Kwale in Delta State, Nigeria. They have tried in recent history to ensure that they are registered but to no avail due to the want of the number required by the national body as the bench mark and the volume of litigation and other legal activities in the Kwale space. But since the 2020s the number has reached close to hundred as against the bench mark of fifty yet the processes of getting it registered as the latest branch of the association has been proving to be a daunting task hence this study which employs the doctrinal method. It seeks to do a numeration of the lawyers in the Kwale legal space who are resident in the town and who are ready to own up as members of the Kwale Bar Forum ready to vouch that they are prepared to hold up the flag of the branch high enough to the acknowledgement and satisfaction of the national body that Kwale is qualified to have a ‘proud’ branch of the association. The study in the process of raising this principal issue of the call for registration of a branch in Kwale has attempted to survey and interrogate some of the forces that have retarded the recognition of Kwale as a branch and has advanced some of the key reasons why the branch should be created by the national body. Some historical incursions were made only for the purpose of highlighting the struggles of legal development in the space and to pay some level of tribute to those early lawyers who chartered the course of the association in Kwale

The Mitigating Effect of Strategic Behavior on the Net Benefits of a Direct Load Control Program

Demand response is an important tool for utilities to manage load during peak periods. While the effects of demand response programs on peak load reductions are well studied and intuitive, assessments typically fail to recognize the potential for off-peak behavioral responses that may mitigate the total benefits of the program. Using smart meter consumption data on residential air conditioning units enrolled in a direct load control program, this paper examines changes in consumption prior to and after curtailment events. The results suggest substantial increases in off-peak consumption, which reduce energy, monetary, and environmental benefits of the program by over 40%

National Question: Attack on Life and School in Nigeria

Insecurity in Nigeria during the Buhari administration has got so high that the administration has become suspect. The target of school children and students of tertiary institutions only goes to establish the confessed aim of Boko Haram insurgency as being anti-western education. Thus when Deborah Samuel was murdered by Boko Haram extremists who claimed to have been appalled by her posting of an alleged blasphemous text-message denigrating Holy Prophet Mohammed on her 200 level Home Economics WhatsApp Platform at Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State, curiosity for this paper arose. This study which employs the doctrinal method surveyed the critical issues involved in the kidnap of school children and the negative impact it has had on the future of education particularly in the north. It observes that the vulnerability of the schools and the student is a soft target and a sure way to undermine the integrity of the Nigerian State in its constitutional role to protect lives and property and advance the right to education of the Nigerian child. It finds that both the State and the International community have been unable to put their acts together and the dangers posed are tremendous. It concludes that until the Buhari administration leaves office in 2023, the danger posed by insecurity to the territorial integrity of the country may not be curbed as the administration appears to be die-in-wool with the insurgents, bandits and terrorists

Lis Pendens: How Oil Companies Spark Disputes in Nigeria: Energia Ltd and Ugboebili

Fishing in troubled waters appears to be the specialty of oil companies in Niger delta, Nigeria. This study which adopts the doctrinal method is a two-pronged work that looks at the relationship between Energia Ltd, an oil company that got a farm out from Elf Petroleum Ltd as a Local Content vehicle on the Emu-Obodougwa marginal field and the host families of Umu-Ozegbe family of Ogume in an earlier study and Umu-Ugboebili family of Emu-Ebendo in this study. It confronts and interrogates the circumstances that led Energia Ltd into building two huge Palaces for the Okpala Uku and Ada of Emu-Ebendo community on a disputed land which Umu-Ugboebili had lost to Gabriel Mgbonyebi and Ossai Olikili families in Suit Nos. NWACC/11/2011; NWACC/40/2011; NWACC/41/2011 and DCCA/5A/2014; and which the Umu-Ugboebili has tried unsuccessfully to over-turn before the Court of Appeal, Benin-City and currently, Court of Appeal, Asaba in CA/B/374/2014. The study is conducted by looking closely at the facts pleaded by the parties in the cases and the decisions of the courts and the implication of the decisions on the ownership of the two magnificent palaces given the common law doctrine of lis pendens through the cases. The study finds that although Energia Ltd and Ebendo community were clearly aware that Umu-Ugboebili family lost the entire land on which the family resides currently by virtue of the showing of the Litigation Survey Plan No: BENO/DT/2012/DIS/004 they tendered before all the three courts, Energia Ltd still went ahead and acquired the lis pendens from Umu-Ugboebili family and Emu-Ebendo community to build the two Palaces on troubled waters. It finds that Energia Ltd and such other oil companies in the third world are fond of the attitude of not staring clear from disputed lands and investigating unimaginative claims of natives who have been empowered by oil money and are out to undermine competent court decisions and in the process, compound the commensality that predated them on the spaces. It was further found that such moves have threatened traditional institutions and produced unrepentant colonies of natives in communal agitation who are eager to win cases at first whistle by compromising the court of first instance but will not go far in the appeals because of the nature of facts they purvey and the strength of the evidence they ventilate and the caliber of legal representatives they engage. The study recommends that the community liaison offices of the companies be manned by non-natives without biases for their neigbohours with previous acrimonies; and owners of the land such palaces are built in error should occupy them

The Buhari State and the Origins of Banditry in Nigeria

Although the origin of banditry in Nigeria is far beyond the Buhari State, he was voted into power largely on the premonition that he had the capacity to tame the scourge of terrorism, banditry and insurgency that became incipient immediately after the military handover of the reins of power to civilians in 1990. But from 1990 up to 2015, the nation began a fall down a slippery slope and by 2022 the nation had gone down the valley of conflicts of all hews. This paper which adopts doctrinal method, attempts a critical survey of the social problem of insecurity in Nigeria particularly in the nature of terrorism, banditry and insurgency, relating the survey to the role of the Buhari State which has been widely complicit in the conflict even though the administration had persistently claimed that its patriotism is deep and un-wavered. The paper further interrogates the administration in the face of the violent activities of Islamic militant groups in the north and separatist agitations in the east and west of Nigeria and against the background of their propulsion of the herder-farmer conflicts all over the country. The study finds that the Buhari State is indictable as it is shown to be partisan; and had largely reneged on the ideological vortex upon which it was propelled to power leaving the ship of state adrift perilously towards the 2023 vacation date of the administration.