THE VALUE OF FORENSIC EVIDENCE IN CRIMINAL TRIALS: A LOOK AT THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISIONIN GAZALI ALIYU V. THE STATE

A PAPER PRESENTATION BY: Messrs ALI D. ZUBAIRU, ESQ. MCIArb(UK), ACTI.
TO LAW STUDENTS OF THE NILE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA AT A WEBINAR HELD ON 6
TH
JULY, 2020.
PREAMBLE
:
It was a judge of the American Supreme Court,
Robert Houghwout Jackson
, that famously said of his court,
“We are notfinal because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.”
This was reverberated by
Hon. JusticeChukwudifu Akunne Oputa, J.S.C.
(as he then was) while delivering the leading Judgment in the popular case of
ADEGOKEMOTORS LTD v. DR. BABATUNDE ADESANYA & ANOR (1989) 3 NWLR (pt 109) 250 at 274; (1989) 5 S.C 113 at 129
asfollows:
“My simple answer is that it is not part of the jurisdiction or duties of this Court to go on looking for imaginaryconflicts. We are final not because we are infallible; rather we are infallible because we are final”.