Extra-Judicial Killing in Nigeria and Public Interest Litigation: The Way Forward

The study is an overview of the subject of extrajudicial killing in Nigeria and Public Interest Litigation. The aim was to assess the effect of extrajudicial killing on legal protection, and the challenges on the Nigeria criminal justice system and efficient legal machinery that will bring culprit to justice. Previous literature on extrajudicial killing was reviewed in Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, El Salvador and Nigeria and the result of the analysis confirms that extrajudicial killing is prevalent in Nigeria and other countries with reasons differing from one country to the other. The study confirmed that extrajudicial killing is never a solution to fighting criminality. Based on the result of the analysis, it was basically recommended that the use of private armies, vigilante and militia forces should be abolished in the country. The police should be made to pay compensation in any case of police extrajudicial killing. The section that appears to encourage extra judicial killing be reviewed or expunged from the 1999 Nigeria constitution and the criminal code. This study has contributed to knowledge as the work has shown the need to review and redraft section 33(2) (b) of the 1999 constitution and section 271 of the criminal code as they tend to encourage extrajudicial killing. Also, the study has also shown the necessity for psychiatric and psychological test to ascertain the soundness of applicants to the various armed forces and the paramilitaries, especially the police force.