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.