Criminal Justice Administration in Nigeria: Forensic Science Integration and the Admissibility Criteria.

In today’s cosmos, there are tech infused, high sophisticated method of perpetrating crimes. Similarly, response to the curtailment of these crimes requires corresponding groundbreaking, high-tech, progressive methods in ensuring social order and crime control. In setting the stage for these norms, the role of forensics science becomes imperative and cannot be isolated from these parameters. Informing this research report, the ensuing discourse provides an understanding on the needs and imperatives for the acculturation of forensic science in Criminal Justice Administration in Nigeria. The paper identifies the current approaches in the prevention, detection and prosecution of crimes in Nigeria. It examines the existing legal frameworks in Nigeria, relating to the application of forensic science and unravels the shortcoming and lacunas inherent in them. Mainly, the research sets foundation of a prototype for the admissibility of forensic evidence in Nigerian courts, using the United States and United Kingdom as case studies. The research found that Nigeria is still behind times in methodologies adopted for effective administration of criminal justice as the system grapples with outmoded, traditional techniques of investigation and prosecution of crimes. The legal research methodology adopted in this report is doctrinal. As part of its findings and conclusion, the paper highlights dearth in forensic infrastructure as a significant challenge bedeviling effective criminal justice administration in Nigeria and proffers prospect towards reforms for future intervention