CORROBORATION AND NON-CONSENT, WORK IN NIGERIA LAW OF RAPE

Aim and Objectives of the Research
The study aims to examine the Nigerian Law of 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 project suggests that the Nigerian Criminal Code be amended to reflect the practice in England under which it is no longer necessary for the judge or jury to warn itself before convicting on uncorroborated testimony of the prosecutrix.

1.5 Significance of the Research
This long essay considers the appropriateness of the requirements of penetration, non-consent corroboration in rape trials, and concludes, inter alia, that the requirement of corroboration, as it currently exists in its rigid form, is a surplusage which should be excised from Nigerian statute books.That the Nigerian courts employ double standard in the interpretation of the requirement of non-consent by expecting victims of rape to put up utmost resistance against their assailants as if they had the physical strength to do so; that the Nigerian laws on rape are long overdue for total overhaul. To remedy these anomalies, the essay makes far-reaching recommendations aimed at filling the age-long neglected lacuna in the Nigerian laws on rape.

1.6 Scope of the Study
The main concern of this research is to explain the crime of rape and how consent is supposed to be understood unlike how it is taken to be. This will be based on all available legal provisions both national and international. The research will address the setbacks in constructing and prosecuting the crime of rape as well as magnifying the importance of consent. The research will also include a comparison of the Nigerian legislation to the international standards of the provisions on rape.Also put forward reasoned and referred recommendations.This essay shall not exceed the content of this title; it shall be within the purview prescribed by the topic. Though Penetration, Corroboration and Non-Consent, appears to be universal, its application differs in different situation and circumstance. This essay has it main focus on the Penetration, Corroboration and Non-Consent: Examining the Nigerian Law of Rape and addressing its Shortcomings”.