International records / OpenAlex research

Need for Unification of Criminal Law in Nigeria

This paper argues that Nigeria’s fragmented criminal law framework is long overdue for a reset. With the Criminal Code operating in the South, the Penal Code in the North, and a patchwork of federal statutes layered on top, the system generates inconsistent definitions of offences, uneven sentencing practices, and messy jurisdictional overlaps that weaken both accountability and public trust. The paper contends that this fragmentation undermines constitutional commitments to equality before the law and creates avoidable barriers to national coherence in criminal justice, especially in an era s…