Section 190 Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) Lagos

Section 190 Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, as amended in 2021, is about Witness refusing to be sworn, or produce documents. It provides as follows:

(1) When any person attending either in obedience to a summons or after notification as in section 183 or by virtue of a warrant or being present in Court and being verbally required by the Court to give evidence in any case—
(a) refuses to be sworn as a witness; or

(b) having been so sworn, refuses to answer any question put to him by the sanction of the Court;
or

(c) refuses or neglects to produce any documents which he is required by the Court to produce,
without offering any sufficient excuse for such refusal or neglect, the Court may, if it deems fit, adjourn the hearing of the case for any period not exceeding eight days where practicable, and may in the meantime, by warrant, commit such person to prison or other place of safe custody, unless he consents to do what is so required of him.

(2) If such person, upon being brought before the Court at or before such adjourned hearing again refuses to do what is so required of him, the Court may, if it deems fit, again adjourn the hearing of the case, and commit him to prison or other place of safe custody for the same period until such person consents to do what is so required of him.

(3) Nothing in this section shall affect the liability of any such person to any other punishment or proceeding for refusing or neglecting to do what is so required of him, or shall prevent the Court from disposing of the case in the meantime according to any other sufficient evidence taken by it.

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