Fights break out at different public places or gatherings like meetings, market, streets, even offices, especially on the road between drivers that bash each other’s car or agberos at the park; it is usually a source of entertainment and comic relief to some people. Indeed, public fights are common in Nigeria and many consider it a norm.
During the yuletide, street fighting is the norm in some communities as youths under the influence of alcohol engage in violence that they may normally not engage in. At such times, people will say it is two fighting and everyone goes their way. But this may not be the case all the time as street fighting is not the harmless act that many consider it to be. It is an act that could get you one to three years imprisonment because fighting in a public place is a crime in Nigeria.
Section 83 of the Criminal Code Act in Nigeria refers to this as affray. It provides that “any person who takes part in a fight in a public place is guilty of a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for one year.”
Fighting means taking part in a violent struggle involving the exchange of physical blows or the use of weapons or to quarrel or argue and according to the Criminal Code Act, a public place is any public way, and any building, place, or conveyance, to which for the time being the public are entitled or permitted to have access, either without any conditions or upon condition of making any payment, and any building or place which is for the time being used for any public or religious meeting or assembly, or as an open court.’
It also includes any highway, marketplace, square, street, bridge, or other way, which is lawfully used by the public; this also has the connotation of public so may be taken to mean ‘public place.’
A misdemeanour is any offence which is declared by law to be a misdemeanour or is punishable by imprisonment for not less than six months but less than three years. It could be regarded as a minor offence.
Section 84 of the Criminal Code Act states, “Any person who challenges another to fight a duel, or attempts to provoke another to fight a duel, or attempts to provoke any person to challenge another to fight a duel, is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for three years.
“Any person who fights in a prize fight, or subscribes to or promotes a prize fight, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for one year.”
If you are someone that likes fighting or getting into trouble, it is important to know that it is a criminal offence to provoke a person to fight and also importantly consider that it attracts a steeper punishment.
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