PENAL CODE ACT

This Act may be cited as the Penal Code Act.

The provisions contained in the Schedule to this Act shall be the law of Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja with respect to the several matters therein dealt with and the said Schedule may be cited as, and is in this Act called, the Penal Code.

(1) A person shall be liable to punishment under the Penal Code for an act or omission contrary to the provision thereof of which he shall be guilty within the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja.
(2) After the commencement of this Act no person shall be liable to punishment under a customary law.

(1) Where by the provisions of any law of the Federation the doing of an act or the
making of an omission is made an offence, those provisions shall apply to every person
who is in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja at the time of his doing the act or making the omission.
(2) Where any such offence comprises several elements and any acts, omissions or events occur which, if they all occurred in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja would constitute an offence, and any of such acts, omissions or events occur in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja although the other acts, omissions or events, which if they occurred in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja would be elements of the offence, occur elsewhere than in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, then-
(a) if the act or omission, which in the case of an offence committed wholly in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja would be the initial element of the offence, occurs in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the person who does that act or makes that omission is guilty of an offence of the same kind and is liable to the same punishment as if all the subsequent elements of the offence occurred in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; and
(b) if that act or omission occurs elsewhere than in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and the person who does that act or makes that omission afterwards enters the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, he is by such entry guilty of an offence of the same kind, and is liable to the same punishment, as if that act or omission had occurred in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and he had been in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, when it occurred.
(3) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (2) of this section it shall be a defence to the charge in any such case to prove that the person accused did not intend that the act or omission should have effect in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
(4) The provisions of subsection (2) of this section do not extend to a case in which the only material event that occurs in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is the death of
a person whose death is caused by an act or omission at a place outside, and at a time when that person was outside the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

(1) When by the Penal Code an act is declared to be lawful, no action shall be brought in respect thereof.
(2) Except as aforesaid, the provisions of this Act shall not affect any right of action which
any person would have had against another if this Act had not been passed; nor shall
the omission from the Penal Code of any penal provision in respect of any act or omission which before the time of the coming into operation of the Penal Code constituted an actionable wrong affect any right of action in respect thereof.

Nothing in this Act or in the Penal Code shall affect the court. authority of courts of record to punish a person summarily for the offence commonly known as contempt of court; but a person cannot be so punished and also punished under the provisions of the Penal Code for the same act or omission.