CROSS RIVER – COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT LAW
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LAWS OF CROSS RIVER STATE
CHAPTER C8
COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT LAW
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION
- Fine on villages, etc., accessory to crime.
- Fine on villages where homicide is committed or attempted.
- Power to return whole or part of fine after period of good behaviour.
- Power to order delivery up of arms.
- Power to define limits of village, etc.
- Proceedings to enforce payment of fines.
- Inquiry under this Law.
- Interpretation.
- Short title and application.
CHAPTER C8
COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT LAW
A Law to provide for the imposition of fines on Villages and Communities in certain cases.
(24th November, 1915)
[Commencement.]
- Fine on villages, etc., accessory to crime
The Governor may impose fines on all or any inhabitants of any village or district or members of any tribe or community if, after inquiry, he finds—
(a) that they have colluded with any criminal, or harboured, or rescued, or attempted to rescue, or failed to take all reasonable means to prevent the escape of, any criminal or any person accused of having committed a crime concerning whom a public announcement had previously been made within the limits of their village or district by an authorised emissary of an administrative officer or of a local government;
(b) that they have suppressed, or combined to suppress, evidence in any criminal case, investigation, or inquiry, or in any inquest;
(c) that stolen property, or property which might reasonably be suspected of being the proceeds, or part of the proceeds of a theft concerning which a public announcement had previously been made in the manner specified in paragraph (a), having been traced to within the limits of their village or district, they have failed or neglected to restore the property or to take on the track beyond the limits of such village or district;
(d) that they have wilfully disobeyed, or neglected or refused to carry out, any lawful order given to them by an administrative officer or by a local government;
(e) that their conduct has been such as to require the bringing of soldiers or police to the village or district or the employment of soldiers or police against them for the purposes of preventing or suppressing disturbances, or enforcing lawful orders or the payment of taxes leviable under the law of the State.
- Fine on villages where homicide is committed or attempted
(1) Where within any village or district a person is unlawfully killed, or dangerously wounded by unlawful attack, or the body is found of a person believed to have been unlawfully killed, the Governor may impose a fine on all or any of the inhabitants of such village or district or the members of any tribe or community resident therein unless they can show that they did not take part in the commission of the offence and either—
(a) had not an opportunity of preventing the offence or arresting the offender; or
(b) have used all reasonable means to bring the offender to justice.
(2) The Governor may order the whole or any part of a fine recovered under the provisions of this section to be paid as compensation to the person wounded or to the members of the family of the person killed.
- Power to return whole or part of fine after period of good behaviour
The Governor may, either by the order imposing the fine or by a subsequent order, direct that the whole or any part of the fine recovered under the provisions of this Law shall be repaid to the persons paying such fine provided that they shall have kept the peace and been of good behaviour for such period as the Governor may determine; and any such order may be subsequently varied by a further order of the Governor curtailing or extending such period.
- Power to order delivery up of arms
In addition to or in lieu of a fine the Governor may order all or any inhabitants of any village or district or members of any tribe or community who have been guilty of an offence against any of the provisions of any of the foregoing sections to deliver up such number of arms as may be ordered to such officer as may be specified.
- Power to define limits of village, etc.
The Governor may determine the limits of a village or district or define a tribe or community for the purposes of any order under this Law.
- Proceedings to enforce payment of fines
If the fines or any part of them are not paid within twenty-one days next after the date fixed for payment thereof, it shall be lawful for the Governor to direct that a distress be levied upon the movable and immovable property of all or any of the persons upon whom the fines have been imposed in respect of the amount then remaining unpaid.
- Inquiry under this Law
(1) An inquiry under this Law shall be conducted in the same manner, as far as may be, as an inquiry under Part 49 of the Criminal Procedure Law.
[Cap. C17.]
(2) The Governor may in any case direct that an inquiry under this Law shall be conducted by two or more officers sitting together.
- Interpretation
“arms” includes arms of precision and any weapon discharging a projectile by explosion, and any part of such weapon, and also swords, cutlasses, spears, daggers, bow and arrows;
“arms of precision” includes magazine guns, rifles, breech loaders, cap-guns, flint-locks with rifled barrels, revolvers, pistols, air guns and air pistols, or any part or parts thereof.
- Short title and application
This Law may be cited as the Collective Punishment Law.
CHAPTER C8
COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT LAW
SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION
No Subsidiary Legislation
