Defence of <i>alibi</i> under the Nigerian criminal jurisprudence: A review of the duty of investigating police officer

Abstract

The target of criminal justice administration is to pin a crime to an exact culprit and mete out deserving punishment. The principle of audi  alterem partem however requires that no person should be condemned unheard. Criminal trials in 55ivilized jurisprudence  therefore require that the defendant be afforded adequate time and facility to defence himself. An accused takes leverage of a number of defences to this effect; including the defence of alibi. Alibi is a defence based on the fact that the defendant was somewhere else and  could not have practically committed the alleged crime. When alibi is raised timeously, it places heavy obligations on the police to  investigate same. In Nigeria, there has been instances where Investigating Police Officers did not bother to investigate alibi or  investigated same shabbily thereby causing untoward hardship to victims of crimes. In this paper therefore we adopted doctrinal  research methodology to explore the law, the defence and investigation of alibi with a view to exposing the innate peculiarities and quandaries of this defence under the Nigerian law.