Assault - Legalnaija

IF I SLAP YOU

by Legalnaija | Apr 8, 2016 | Uncategorized

There is this
popular belief that members of the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria are never one to
actually fight but they can spend hours cursing and gesticulating. A popular
comedian once said if you get a Yoruba man angry, he would threaten to hit you
by saying words like “I will slap you” but he may never actually hit you but
the Warri man whom you have gotten angry will actually slap you first and
threaten to slap you later. Kindly
provoke someone from one of the tribes mentioned above and share your
experience with us. Please I am just kidding, I won’t support or promote street
fights anywhere.

However, do you
know that slapping someone is an offense?

The Black’s Law
Dictionary defines “assault” as the threat or use of force on another that
causes that person to have a reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or
offensive contact. Thus if I threaten you with the words “I will slap you” and
you reasonably believe that I will harm you, then I have committed an assault.
Same goes for using sentences like “I will punch you” or “I will shoot you” or
“I go break this bottle for your head”.

The law in Section
351 of the Criminal Code, Chapter C38,
LFN 2004 states that; any person who unlawfully assaults another is guilty
of a misdemeanour, and is liable, if no greater punishment is provided to,
imprisonment for one year.

The law further
provides in Section 355 that; any person who unlawfully assaults another and
thereby does him harm, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for
three years.

Therefore, next
time you feel tempted to assault anyone, please remember this blog post and
understand that no one is worth spending one year of your life in prison for.

Adedunmade Onibokun

@adedunmade

Dunmadeo@yahoo.com

Photo Credits – www.tennandtenn.com

XENOPHOBIC LAWS IN NIGERIA

by Legalnaija | Sep 1, 2015 | Uncategorized

Credits – dailymaverick.co.za

South
Africa was in the spot light a few months ago after the Zulu king, Goodwill
Zwelithini, was reported to have said that foreigners “should pack their
bags and go back home”. The king later denied making those comments but
within days the violence had spread to the country’s most populous city Johannesburg.
The comment led to the harassment, assault and in some extreme cases the death
of persons who were immigrants in South Africa. These violent act was
criticized the world over and thankfully the South-African authorities were
able to get things under control, though a lot of damage had already been done.

Xenophobia
can be described as the fear of strangers or foreigners. In Nigeria, there have
been tensions between various ethnic groups in the past, some resulting in
violence. Nigeria’s online community is very active and can cause an issue or
comment to trend in a very short time, thus imagine a situation where a
xenophobic comment is shared and allowed to trend, this could pose a major
problem for everyone. That’s why our laws prohibit xenophobic or racist
comments even on online media.

Credits – cnn.com

The
Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention,etc) Act 2015 in Section 26 provides that any
person who with intent distributes any racist or xenophobic material to the
public through a computer system or network or insults or threatens persons for
the reason that they belong to a group distinguished by race, colour, descent,
national or ethnic origin, as well as, religion or who distributes material
which denies or approves or justifies acts constituting genocide or crimes
against humanity shall be liable on conviction to 5 years in prison or to a
fine not less than N10,000,000 (Ten Million Naira) or both”.

For
the sake of interpreting the law and trying to figure what can constitute a genocides
or xenophobic material, genocide means acts committed with intent to destroy in
whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Racist or
xenophobic material on the other hand means any written or printed material or
any image which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or
violence against any group or individuals.

It
is quite important that while tweeting and sharing on the web, we should be
careful not to make any inciting, racist or xenophobic statements. Not to also ignore the criminal liability that comes with assaulting another person or inciting others to commit assault.

Adedunmade
Onibokun, Esq

dunmadeo@yahoo.com

@adedunmade

THE LAW ON ASSAULTING WOMEN

by Legalnaija | Sep 5, 2014 | Uncategorized

Source: Google

SCENARIO 1

It’s been a long week for John, finally it’s TGIF and he can’t
wait to get out of his work routine and meet up with Bisi, a very beautiful girl
he just met at the mall the previous week, they had exchanged text messages and
phone calls for the past week and it just seemed like an eternity before their
date at 5pm. John was turned up and
excited at the thought of dining with Bisi and he hoped to invite her to his
apartment later on in the night.

Finally, its 10pm, after a lovely meal at the Chinese restaurant
in Ikeja G.R.A, Bisi and John are sitting on his couch paying little attention
to the News on Channelstv and finally John makes his move, he tries to kiss Bisi
but she refuses and playfully pushes him away. John who does not intend to take
no for answer holds Bisi down and begins to touch her. Bisi is scared at this
point and shouts for John to leave her alone, John pays no heed to her calls
for freedom, he forces himself upon her and rapes her.

THE LAW

By provision of Chapter 30 of the Criminal Code Act, CAP
C38, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004; Section 357 provides
that;

“Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or
girl, without her consent, or with her consent, if the consent is obtained by
force or by means of threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of harm,
or by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the
nature of the act, or, in the case of a married woman, by personating her
husband, is guilty of an offence which is called rape”.

The law further provides that any person who commits the offence of rape is
liable to imprisonment for life, with or without caning while a person who
attempts to commit the offence of rape is guilty of a felony, and is liable to
imprisonment for 14 years, with or without caning.

SCENARIO 2

Chucks, Femi, Aminu and Teju are flat mates. Chucks invites a
girl he met earlier over. Immediately she walks in, Chucks locks the door, Femi
holds her hands, Aminu rips off her clothes and Teju covers her mouth to
prevent her from screaming, they physically assault her but however do not rape
her before they let her go.

THE LAW

Section 360 of the Criminal Code Act further
states that any person who unlawfully and indecently assaults a woman or girl
is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable to imprisonment for two years. Also any
person who, with intent to marry or carnally know a female of any age, or to
cause her to be married, or carnally known by any other person, takes her away,
or detains her against her will, is guilty of a felony, and is liable to
imprisonment for seven years.

SCENARIO 3

Hakeem approaches his friend Mustapha for the hand of his 14
year old daughter, Amina in marriage but Mustapha refuses. Hakeem then lures Amina
to his hotel where he hides Amina for 3 days. Mustapha is distraught at the disappearance
of his daughter and after involving the police discovers Amina in Hakeem’s
hotel.

THE LAW

Section 362 of the Act states that any person who unlawfully
takes an unmarried girl under the age of sixteen out of the protection of her
parents or guardians against the will of such parents will be guilty of a
misdemeanor, and is liable to imprisonment for two years. It is immaterial if
the offender believed the girl to be above the age of sixteen or if the girl
was taken with her consent.

It is important that any female who has
been the victim of any of the acts mentioned above should file a complaint at
the police station nearest to her in other to ensure the prosecution of the
offender.

Adedunmade Onibokun Esq.

@adedunmade
@adedunmade
Adedunmade Onibokun is a legal practitioner, publisher and blogger. He
holds an LLM in International Business Law from the University of
Bradford and publishes the Nigerian law blog Legalnaija.

RAPE IN LAGOS STATE IS LIFE IMPRISONMENT

by Legalnaija | Jun 30, 2014 | Uncategorized

Credits: Google

As a
lawyer and blogger, I come across many reports bothering on sexual crimes. I bet
you have as well. I particularly remember the shocking news out of India when
four men raped and killed a lady who commuted in the same vehicle with them.
Don’t push your nose up just yet at the Indians; we both know such similar stories
come out of your city or communities as well. Sexual crimes are a universal problem
which the courts and law enforcement agencies come across almost daily, I
wonder why we have so many ~~perverts and sexual predators~~ people committing
such crimes in today’s society.

In Lagos
State,Nigeria, the Criminal Code Law (2011) in Section 258 (1) provides that “any man who has unlawful sexual intercourse
with a woman or girl, without her consent, is guilty of the offence of rape and
liable to imprisonment for life”. A life time in prison is a long time to ~~rot~~
cool off in jail because you can’t ~~zip up~~ control
your sexual urges. Plus, it’s important to identify that fine line between
seduction and attempted rape, the law further states in Subsection (2) that “a woman or girl does not consent to sexual
intercourse if she submits to the act by reason of force, impersonation, threat
or intimidation of any kind, fear of harm or false or fraudulent representation
as to the nature of the act”. I wonder if religious leaders who cajole
their followers to have sexual intercourse come under this head, what do you
think?

Credits: Vanguardngr.com

Sexual
intercourse between a man and a woman who are married is not unlawful and sexual
intercourse is complete on the slightest penetration of the vagina or any other
part for that matter as seen in Section 259 which says “any person who penetrates sexually the anus, vagina, mouth or any other
opening in the body of another person with a part of his body or anything else,
without the consent of the person is guilty of a felony and liable to imprisonment
for life”. Wow, like I earlier stated, life in jail is a long time for a
crime that takes less than a few minutes to execute, in my opinion, it’s
definitely not worth it, even an attempt to sexually assault or rape is a
felony liable to imprisonment for fourteen (14) years, I bet you don’t want
that either.

Sexual Harassment
is a big thing that could get you a 3 year jail term in Lagos State, you cannot
even touch another person sexually without their consent or you could be liable
to imprisonment for three (3) years, that means ~~squeezing the yansh~~ grabbing
a co-worker or passerby in a sexual manner without their consent is not a good
idea either (S. 261(1)).

“Sexual
harassment is unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favours, and other
visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature which when submitted to
or rejected–

(a) implicitly
or explicitly affects a person’s employment or educational opportunity or
unreasonably interferes with the person’s work or educational performance;

(b) implicitly
or explicitly suggests that submission to or rejection of the conduct will be a
factor in academic or employment decisions; or

A person
consents if he agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity to make and
communicate that choice. In determining whether a person charged had reasonable
grounds for believing that another person consented, the court shall have
regard to all the circumstances, including any steps taken by the defendant to
ascertain whether the woman or girl consented. So when a girl says no, she
means no. You may ask how can one tell if she’s saying no but means yes, well, ~~except~~
~~she is saying no and putting your penis into her vagina~~ if she implies
yes by her other actions or speech, that will be a question for the court to
decide.

Credits: connectnigeria.com

Bestiality
is another ball game, meaning ~~to fuck an animal~~ to have sexual relations
with an animal is a no-no, any person who has sexual intercourse with an animal
is guilty of a

felony,
and is liable to imprisonment for three (3) years (S.265).

Adedunmade
Onibokun, Esq

@adedunmade