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LearningTheLaw > Legal News & Articles (Page 14)

The Doctrine of Estoppel in Nigerian Evidence Law: Types, Operation and Limits

A developer tells a farmer in Ogun State: "Do not worry about the fence. Build your house right up to the boundary. I will never enforce my right to the fence line." The farmer, relying on this representation, spends his savings building up to the boundary. Three years later, the developer sells the land to a new buyer who immediately sues the farmer for trespass. Can the new buyer enforce the fence line? The doctrine of estoppel says no, or at least it makes it very difficult. The developer made a representation. The farmer acted on it to his detriment. The...

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Presumptions Under the Evidence Act 2011: How Nigerian Courts Assume Facts

A woman's husband travels to Kano for business in 2015. He calls her once from the road and is never heard from again. Seven years pass. No letter. No phone call. No word through any family member or mutual acquaintance. In 2022, the woman wants to remarry. Must she produce proof that her husband is dead before she can do so, or does the law help her? The law helps her. After seven years without being heard from, her husband is presumed dead under section 164 of the Evidence Act 2011. She does not need a death certificate. She does not...

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Confessions Under the Evidence Act 2011: Voluntariness, Oppression and Retraction

On any given day in a Nigerian police station, a suspect is brought in for questioning. Sometimes, the questioning is done properly. Often, it is not. What happens next, the statement that emerges from that interrogation, may become the most important piece of evidence in a criminal trial. Whether that statement is admitted into evidence can determine whether a person goes free or goes to prison. Confessions are extraordinary evidence. They are admissions by the accused person themselves that they committed the crime. When believed and properly obtained, they are among the strongest evidence a prosecution can have. The Supreme Court...

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Admissions in Evidence Law: Formal, Informal and by Conduct

A defendant files a statement of defence in a land dispute. In paragraph four, he admits that the plaintiff has been farming on the disputed land since 1998 but says this was done with his permission. That admission, buried in a pleading, can be powerful. The plaintiff no longer needs to prove years of possession. The defendant has conceded it. The dispute narrows to whether the plaintiff's occupation was permissive or adverse. This is an admission at work. It is one of the most significant concepts in Nigerian evidence law because it directly reduces what the opposing party must prove, and...

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