Section 36(9&10) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) stipulates thus;
“(9)No person who shows that he has been tried by any court of competent jurisdiction or tribunal for a criminal offense and either convicted or acquitted shall again be tried for that offense or for a criminal offense having the same ingredients as that offense save upon the order of a superior court.
(10) No person who shows that he has been pardoned for a criminal offense shall again be tried for that offense”.
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There is this funny but crazy thing that Nigerian law enforcement agencies do, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the State Security Services (SSS) whereby whenever they want to stress someone or whenever they want to punish someone thoroughly after the person has been prosecuted for a particular offense and the person was discharged, they may decide to file the same charge in a different court or duplicate the charges in a different. That is what is known as double jeopardy.
Double jeopardy is a famous legal principle In criminal jurisprudence. In its ordinary usage, double jeopardy connotes the unlawful procedure of subjecting a person to a trial on two separate occasions for the same offense. In law also, it’s close to the act of being prosecuted or tried twice for substantially the same offense.
Double jeopardy as a legal doctrine tends to protect individuals from being tried twice for the same offense after an acquittal or conviction. It prevents the government from subjecting individuals to multiple prosecutions for the same conduct. Therefore, it is a procedural defense available in criminal litigation for an accused and it prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction.
In the case of The Nigerian Army V Brig. Gen. Maude Aminun-kano (2010) LLJR-SC the court was of the opinion that punishing a person twice for the same offense will be a double jeopardy which has been prohibited by section 36(9 & 10) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
The doctrine of double jeopardy which is a rule that tend to protect an individual from being tried twice all punished for the same offense has the conditions which must exist before an accused can successfully plead or raise this defense and these conditions include;
- The accused person must have been earlier tried by a competent court of law;
- The facts of the earlier case and the new one must be the same; and
- The earlier trial must have resulted in the discharge, acquittal or some other form of punishment of the accused person.
Once these ingredients are found to be available an accused person must be quickly be discharged as the trial of him again for the second time will cause a great injustice to the accused.
