Abstract
The crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government is now at alarming rate . Treason is the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injured the sovereign or the sovereign’s family . Crime is at alarming rate globally but mostly in Nigeria a common law jurisdiction due to non-independence of judiciary, lack of appropriate penal sanction, corrupt leadership, bribery and corruption on the part of law the law enforcement agencies. Crime can be defined as an act that the law makes punishable, the breach of a legal duty treated as a subject matter of a criminal proceeding. It is also termed criminal wrong. Crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. Crime in modern criminal law does not have universally accepted definition. Crime is an illegal act for which someone (accused) can be punished by the government especially a gross violation of law. It is a grave offence especially against State. Compounding felony such as treason was the focus of this research article. The research methodology applied was purely doctrinal in nature because it involved the use of primary and secondary sources of information, primary sources includes statutes, journals, law reports magazines, newspapers and the likes while secondary sources includes textbooks, Encyclopedia, Dictionaries and others. It also includes internet sources, summarily the resources materials used in the cause of writing this journal was purely both traditional and digital or virtual library, therefore it was a library based in nature.
Prof. O. V. C. Okene & N.A. Adewusi, pp 62 – 80
