ANALYSIS OF SECTION 24 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE IN RELATION TO MENS REA AND CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The general objective of criminal law is punishment of offenders. Punishment is said to be meted out on persons who committed an act or omission that is criminal. An offence which is also used interchangeably with crime is defined as a wrongful act or omission which is prohibited by law with some penal consequences. However, punishment for offences is not done for the fun of it. At least, there was the need to ascertain the actual commission of the offence or the doing of the act or omission which constitutes a crime (actus reus) by a person(s) (parties to an offence), the existence of some blame on the part of the person (mens rea). This requirement of blameworthiness on the part of the doer also expressed in the axiom ‘no liability without fault’ becomes the hallmark of the common law doctrine of mens rea, that is, the guilty mind which constitutes the mental element of an offence. This philosophical concept of ‘no liability without fault’ is the foundational basis of the defenses (general and special) to criminal responsibilities. However, Nigeria criminal law has now dispensed with the much complicated and confusing doctrine of mens rea by specifically and expressly enacting various defenses especially section 24 of the Criminal Code which provides defenses for independent acts or omissions, or events which occur by accident. This work examined Section 24 of the Criminal Code in relation to mens rea, genetic determinism, artificial intelligence, vicarious liability, thin skull/egg shell rule and strict liability as it relates to criminal responsibility in Nigeria. For an in-depth analysis, the researcher used referential materials, statutes, case laws, textbooks, articles and journals, internet materials, opinion of scholars. At the end of this academic exercise, the researcher discovered that in spite of the salutary provisions of section 24 of the Criminal Code; little considerable attention has been paid to that provision in the determination of criminal responsibilities in Nigeria. Rather, Nigerian courts and legal practitioners continued to invoke the much confusing common law principle of mens rea in determining criminal responsibility. The researcher recommended that section 24 of the Criminal Code be given its position as the foundational corner stone of defenses in Nigeria criminal law.