CRITIQUE OF THE OFFENCES OF STEALING AND THEFT UNDER THE NIGERIAN CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE

Abstract

This paper analyses and critique the offences of stealing and theft under the Nigerian Criminal Jurisprudence. Stealing and Theft are very serious offences which affect the economy and stability of every country and have been considered as serious offences in all jurisdictions. This paper finds that stealing/theft as a criminal offence has been viewed globally and also in Nigeria, as permanent deprivation of a person's ownership in a property by another, and what constitutes property has often been limited to material and moveable things. This paper further finds that as a result of digitalisation, stealing and theft have gone beyond the obvious deprivation of a person's ownership/possession in a thing and that there are other things that should be considered property for the sake of defining the offence of stealing/theft and recommends the need to review and amend the Nigerian criminal laws to redefine what constitutes properties capable of being stolen/capable of being the subject of theft by expanding the scope of such properties to cover a wider range. In conducting this research, the doctrinal method was employed whereby the offences of stealing and theft in Nigeria and China were compared with a view to pointing out loopholes and lacunae in the Nigerian Legislations.