DECONSTRUCTING THE BARRIERS TO ACCESS TO JUSTICE BY CRIME VICTIMS IN THE NIGERIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.
Nigeria today more than ever is replete with high profile cases of criminalities. These include but are not limited to: murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape, child trafficking, insurgency, banditry, theft, youth's restiveness, fraud, electoral malpractices/irregularities, corruption etc. Crimes such as these have the capacity of consuming any given society where they are found. Victims of these crimes are usually helpless and hopeless as the Judiciary which they look up to as the last hope of the common man appears also to be helpless as it is not tackling the situation head on. Victims of crime in their efforts to get justice also face other challenges such as finance as they bear the cost of coming to court to give evidence, lack of protection from the State during the prosecution of their case, undue delay in justice dispensation (as justice delayed they say, is justice denied) This paper seeks to unearth the multifarious challenges facing victims of crimes in Nigeria. The approach adopted in this paper isdoctrinal. It concludes that unless the Nigerian criminal justice system is retooled, re jigged, overhauled and reinforced, Nigeria might be overwhelmed by these vices and thereby rendering her lawless where survival would be for the fittest.