Adopted by the Northern Region in 1959 ahead of independence, derived from the Sudanese Penal Code which was itself adapted from the Indian Penal Code of 1860. Applies in the 19 Northern States; coexists with Sharia criminal codes for Muslim residents in 12 States since 2000.
Criminal1959Colonial· Cap. P3
Penal Code (Northern States) Federal Provisions Act
The criminal code applicable in the Northern States; derived from the Sudanese Penal Code.
Standard citation
Penal Code (Northern States) Federal Provisions Act (Cap. P3), Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The political & economic reality at enactment
The political and economic reality
Nigeria in 1959: who was in charge, the cabinet of the day, the GDP, and the crises that defined the period of this Act's commencement.
British colonial administration
Sir Frederick Lugard → Sir James Robertson
1900–1960
National reality
Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates (1914) under indirect rule. Marketing boards extracted cocoa, palm oil and groundnut surpluses; political agitation built through the press and the trade union movement.
Crises of the period
- Aba Women's War (1929)
- Iva Valley shooting of striking miners (1949)
- Kano riots (1953)
GDP (World Bank)
Pre-independence; no national accounts series
Cabinet (selected portfolios)
Full ministerial roster being compiled.
Government administered by Governors-General and Residents. The first indigenous federal ministers were appointed under the 1954 Lyttelton Constitution.
Source · Toyin Falola, A History of Nigeria (CUP, 2008)
Methodology
Tier 1 · primary
Courts. Gazettes. National archives.
Tier 2 · corroborating
OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.
Tier 4 · tertiary, flagged
Wikipedia only where primary is pending. Always labelled.