BURDEN OF PROVING THE OFFENCE OF RAPE; MAKING A CASE FOR THE REVIEW OF THE PROCEDURE

Rape is one of the most commonly reported crimes all over the world. It is a crime under both international and national law although it is still primarily prosecuted before domestic courts. The Nigerian criminal justice is a legacy of the English common law. Under the common law philosophy, a person accused of the commission of crime is not obliged to prove his innocence. The obligation is on the accuser or prosecutor to prove the substance of the allegations to the satisfaction of the court. In line with this common law philosophy, the Nigerian criminal justice system enjoins that any allegation of commission of crime against a person shall be proved beyond reasonable doubt. This is the foundation for saddling the prosecution with the responsibility of burden of proof in a criminal trial. It is also in line with the constitutional 'presumption of innocence' of every person charged with a criminal offence until he is proved guilty. This discourse is a comprehensive look at the offence of “rape” as a legal concept. It analyzed recent statutory changes and developments in this area of the law, it seeks to examine the Nigerian Laws on rape with particular emphasis on how the law defines the essential ingredients of that offence, namely: penetration, corroboration and non-consent. It also examines the interpretative approach of the Nigerian courts vis-à-vis these requirements. Resulting from the difficulty faced by the courts when dealing with the corroboration requirement, the paper suggests that the Nigerian Criminal Code be amended to reflect whereby the judge to warn itself before convicting on uncorroborated testimony of the prosecution. The paper concludes by making far reaching recommendations aimed at giving some respites to victims of rape in Nigeria. The methodology adopted in the course of this research is the doctrinal methodology. The researcher used both primary and secondary methods of data collection. Some of the findings of this work are: The Nigerian Criminal Code and Penal Code are lacking in their provisions on the offence of rape such as its provisions on who can commit rape and other findings therein.