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Showing posts from April, 2018

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION OF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT: HOW EXCLUSIVE?

In a federal system of government, there is usually a division of executive, legislative and judicial powers between the central government and the government of the component units or states. Hence the judiciary in Nigeria can be generally divided into two, viz the Federal judiciary and the State judiciary 1 . Courts of the Federal Judiciary include the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, The Federal High Court, National Industrial Court, etc. On the other hand, State Courts consist of the High court of a State, Sharia Court of Appeal of a State, Magistrate Court, etc.   Asides from the Magistrate Court, all other aforementioned courts are superior courts of record 2 . . The Federal High Court (herein after referred to as FHC), which is the subject of this article is arguably one of the most important courts in the federal judicial hierarchy. This is evident in the fact that it has 36 divisions, spread across the country.   It is however pertinent to note that there is only one FHC.