ABSTRACT
The enactment of the Evidence Act 2011 has endeavoured to address a portion of the challenges and difficulties that the admissibility of electronically produced evidence experience in Nigerian Courts. In any case, is the general recognition that every single electronic correspondence and sends are currently permissible in Nigerian courts right?
In 2014, Nigeria recorded in over two million dollars worth of online transaction per week[1]. However, the e-commerce market in Nigeria is growing very rapidly, with an estimated annual development pace of 25%[2]. In recent times, transactions are directed on electronic platforms which infer that the utilization of computers in Nigeria has developed exponentially in the most recent decade. Budgetary exchanges, modern automobiles, correspondence framework, and so on rely solely on computers.
The unfolding of mechanical headway and the ensuing advancement of paperless transactions has pervaded every circle of life, of which the legal system isn’t an exception. Ensuing upon this, in case of disputes involving transactions conducted through electronic means, parties are compelled by a solemn obligation to depend on the electronic evidence of such transactions.
In view of the aforementioned, in order to accept international best practices, the Evidence Act, 2004 was repealed and supplanted with the Evidence Act, 2011 to suit the admissibility of electronically generated evidence under the steady gaze of the Nigerian Courts[3]. Prior to the amendment, the admissibility of electronic evidence in court proceedings had been controversial due to the absence of explicit provisions in the previous act, even in the light of Supreme Court’s decision in Esso v.Oyegbola[4] and comparable cases in which it held that computer printouts were admissible.
The judiciary, therefore, faces genuine difficulties to adapt to innovative advancements particularly as it influences the treatment of electronically generated evidence. The very fundamental advancement introduced into our evidentiary rules by the Evidence Act, 2011 is the express provision for admissibility of proclamations in documents produced by computers[5].
This work is a commitment to the illumination procedure on the provisions of the 2011 Evidence Act with respect to admissibility or in any case of electronically generated evidence.
[1] Admissibility of Electronic Evience in Nigeria. http://www.acas-law.com.
[2] Admissibility of Electronic Evience in Nigeria. http://www.acas-law.com.
[3] (1969)NMLR 194.
[4] (2014)4 NWLR Pt. 1345, pages 534-594.
[5] www.iiste.org.
