AN APPRAISAL OF THE DOCTRINE OF PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Adducing of evidence, testimony of witnesses and examination of witnesses are very important steps in the fact-finding process of justice. Furthermore, fact finding process requires witnesses to be compellable to testify and documents to be produced before the court. Under the Nigerian Law of Evidence, there are exclusionary rules to the compellability of a witness and production of documents regardless of its relevance to the issue at hand. Privilege communication exists as an evidential exclusionary rule of great antiquity, which makes relevant information inadmissible and certain individuals not compellable witnesses to testify in court. Privilege communication has been adopted in various legal systems of the world and has made its way from English common law to the Nigerian Law of Evidence. This project is an appraisal of the doctrine of privileged communication in Nigeria, its justification and the level of operation in the Nigerian justice system. It considers the legal framework that enables its applicability in the Nigerian Law of Evidence. This research also identifies the limitations to the doctrine of privilege communication, the rationale for such limitations and the lacunas in the legislations that provide for privilege. This project recommends that the Evidence Act should be reviewed to cover loopholes in the area of privilege, which can be exploited in a view to ridicule the law. This research concludes that Privilege communication is justified and operational in the Nigerian justice system.