FORENSIC EVIDENCE AND CRIMINAL CONVICTION IN NIGERIA: ASSESSING THE ADEQUACY OF THE ADMISSIBILITY FRAMEWORK UNDER THE EVIDENCE ACT

Forensic science offers the criminal justice system a means of establishing objective fact with scientific precision. In Nigeria, however, the legal framework governing the use of forensic evidence in criminal proceedings is not adequate. The Evidence Act 2011 (as amended) provides the legal pathway for the court to admit forensic evidence through sections 68 and 84, but these provisions were not designed to govern modern forensic science. This paper therefore examined the rules regulating the admissibility of forensic evidence, the institutional conditions in which that evidence is collected, and the relationship between forensic proof and judicial conviction in Nigeria. A doctrinal methodology was adopted and a comparative reference made to the legal frameworks of the United States and India. The argument of this paper is that the limited impact of forensic evidence on conviction in Nigeria is a product of legislative deficiency rather than scientific inadequacy. The findings revealed that the credential-based admissibility standard under section 68 of the Evidence Act (as amended), the absence of a statutory chain-of-custody regime and systemic institutional misalignment between forensic analysis and law enforcement have collectively undermined the probative potential of forensic evidence. It was concluded that meaningful reform requires a methodology-based admissibility standard, an independent national forensic institution and mandatory forensic investigation in serious criminal proceedings.