Forgiveness in the Criminal Justice System in Nigeria: A Review of Public Prosecutor V. Shawn Tan Jia Jun within the Context of Islamic Law

Abstract

In the administration of criminal justice system in Nigeria, offences are against the State and the role of the victim is limited to being a witness for the Prosecutor. Unlike other stakeholders who have been clothed with the powers to forgive, pardon, grant amnesty or discontinued an ongoing case, the victim, whose rights have been violated has no such powers. Adopting doctrinal method of legal research, this article adopted a tripartite approach in dissecting the research topic. It examined the role of other stakeholders in contradistinction with the role of the victim within the context of forgiveness; it reviewed and critique the decided case of Public Prosecutor v. Shawn Tan Jia Jun and finally explore the position of Islamic Law as far as forgiveness is concerned and the active role played by the victim. The results demonstrated that the victim,who is directly affected by the commission of the crime is not included among those granted the powers to forgive, pardon, grant amnesty or discontinued an ongoing case. It is therefore recommended that the criminal justice system should introduce ‘victim forgiveness’ and  emulate the Islamic criminal law wherein the victim played a very active role and has the power to forgive or discontinue the case.