In trying to the retrieve his “stolen mandate” peter ono has instigated court processes against the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress in person of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Independent Electoral Commission.
For Festus keyamo, the spokesperson of the APC, the actions of Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed are a build-up to something, to rile the people up, pump them up and turn them against the judiciary per adventure the decision of the court doesn’t go in their favour, reason he had petitioned the DSS against Peter Obi for incitement.
Incitement is the encouraging, instigating, pressuring or threatening so as to cause another person to commit a crime.
In the case of R v. Higgins, incitement was defined as “being committed when one person counsels, procures or commands another to commit a crime, whether or not that person commits the crime.”
The words “counsel” and “procure” have been adopted as relating to incitement.
To procure means to produce by endeavour. You procure a thing by setting out to see that it happens and taking the appropriate steps to produce that happening.
There are plenty of instances in which a person may be said to procure the commission of a crime by another even though there is no sort of conspiracy between the two, even though there is no attempt at agreement or discussion as to the form which the offence should take.
It should be noted that to charge one for the offence of incitement, that is, procuring or counselling one to commit an offence of any nature, it must be proved that such person has the “mens rea” and the “actus reus”
The “mens rea” in Law is referred to as the state of mind, that is, the intention. It means that, anyone who is alleging that a person has procured another person to commit an offence must prove to the court that such person really had the intention to procure persons to commit an offence.
The inciter must intend the others to engage in the behaviour constituting the offence, including any consequences which may result and must know or
believe (or possibly suspect) that those others will have the relevant intention too.
The “actus reus” on the other part is the physical part of the offence. It must be proved that the inciter did reach out and seek to influence the mind of another to commit the crime. There must be actual communication so that the other person has the opportunity to agree, but the “actus reus” is complete whether or not the incitement actually persuades another to commit a crime.
It should be noted that the mere act of attempting to procure one to commit a crime is an offence under the Nigerian Laws.
By virtue of 513(1), Criminal Code “Any person who attempts to procure another to do an act or make an omission of such a nature that if he himself were to do the act or make the omission he would be guilty of attempting to commit such offence and to be punishable accordingly.”
In the whole, where Festus Keyamo has labelled Peter Obi to be an inciter of rebellion against the Judiciary and the government, material facts must be shown by Keyamo that P.O had indeed procured his Obidient followers against the government.
LEGALJOE who is also JOSEPH ALIU is a Law undergraduate, Oou chapter and can be reached via 09131704196, 09085773212, aliujoseph085@gmail.com
