Children Evidence under the Nigerian Law: The New Approach after the Evidence Act, 2011

Abstract

In our adversarial system, parties are required to tender material evidence to establish the facts-in-issue upon which their claims, charges or defences are based. By giving evidence linking to the claim, charge or defence, the witness performs a duty of assisting the court to discover the truth of the matter. Generally, a competent witness may be adult, children or an old person. The thrust of this paper is to examine child evidence under the Evidence Act, 2011. The author adopted expository, analytical and comparative methods in conducting this research. The study found that under the Evidence Act, 2011, a child of fourteen years is permitted to give sworn evidence while children below fourteen years give unsworn evidence. The paper suggests that Section 209 (3) of the Evidence Act be amended to read “a child’s evidence in criminal proceedings shall be given unsworn, and such unsworn evidence may be taken as if that evidence had been given on oath”, as it is presently the practice in England and Wales.