ANALYSIS OF COURT MARTIAL CASES UPTURNED ON APPEAL IN NIGERIA ON GROUNDS OF FAIR HEARING

Abstract

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended created the Armed Forces of Nigeria and recognizes court martial as a court of competent jurisdiction. The Armed Forces Act Chapter A 20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 provides that appeals from courts martial lie to the Court of Appeal. Several cases that emanated from courts martial have been upturned on appeal in Nigeria due to different reasons, one of which is the issue of fair hearing. This research was therefore aimed at pointing out the reasons for the upturning of the judgments with a view to correcting the anomaly in the future. The work is based on doctrinal and teleological research methods. In terms of doctrinal research method, the researcher made use of decided cases as sources while for teleological research method, he used his practical experience in courts martial. The research found among others that the major reasons for the upturning of the cases on grounds of fair hearing were issue of bias, descent of the court president and members into the arena and non-invitation of vital witnesses to testify in a case among others. As a way of solving the problem, the research recommended an amendment of the Armed Forces Act to bring in retired legal officers as judges in courts martial but in the interim, to bring in court martial members from outside the immediate jurisdiction of the convening officer.