way of his business as a Banker, Factor, Broker, Legal Practitioner or
Agent, commits Criminal Breach of Trust in respect of that Property,
shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
fourteen years and shall also be liable to a fine.”
The Argument of Learned Counsel, Olalekan Ojo Esq., representing the
Defence, is correct to the extent that the Substantive Section of the Law
creating the Offence ought to be stated in the Charge Sheet.However, the fact
that the Prosecution charged under the Penalty Section alone, is not fatal and
was even contemplated by the Author of the Criminal Procedure Code in
the Northern States of Nigeria, Jeffrey Richard Jones, erstwhile Chief Judge of
Kano State, who analyzed this Section, and stated that normally, it is the
Punishment Section alone that should be stated in the Charge, and it was a
correct practice with regard to the Penal Code. See Appendix B of the
Criminal Procedure Code.
Even though the Criminal Procedure Code was the Applicable Law at the
Time of Drafting these Charges, it has been held in a Newly Delivered
Judgment of the Supreme Court dated the 26th day of January 2018,
PERAKA’AHS JSC, in the case of GABRIEL DAUDU VS FEDERAL REPUBLIC
OF NIGERIA (2018) SUIT NO: SC.172/2017, whoheld inter alia,“that it is
the Substantive Law in operation at the time an Offence is said to have been
committed, that has to be referred to, when a Person is being charged to Court
but the Procedural Law to be used, would be the Current One. Thus, if the
Evidence Act or the Criminal Procedure Law has been Amended or Replaced,
and a New One is in place at the time of Trial, it is the Amended or Newly
Enacted Evidence Act/ Criminal Procedure Code that will be used to guide the
Trial, notwithstanding that the Offence was committed before the
Promulgation of the New Procedural Law.”
Therefore, this Court will refer to the Provisions of the Administration of
Criminal Justice Act 2015.
Now, under Section 194(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act
2015, formerly Section 201 (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code, itstates
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