WHAT ARE THE LEGAL ELEMENT OF AN OFFECE

An offence is defined as an act or omission which is rendered punishable by some legislative enactment. But if the definition of any particular offence is examined carefully, it will be seen that it nearly always consists of two sorts of elements -physical and mental. An offence is an act or omission done or omitted to be done in a particular state of mind. For example in the offence in section 394 of the Criminal Code, the physical element is the killing of an animal capable of being stolen; the mental element is the intent to steal the skin or carcase. In English law the two the two terms which stand for the physical and mental elements of an offence are, respectively, actus reus (Latin for "guilty act") and mens area ("guilty mind"). Nigerian courts have borrowed and used those terms. Although neither of them is mentioned in the Criminal or Penal Code, there is no harm in using them, provided that it is always kept in mind that they are terms of convenience only-shorthand forms of complex notions; that the distinction between them is at best a rough; and that use of those terms cannot justify the introduction of irrelevant principles of English law into the Nigerian law.

One may speak in the plural of the mental elements or physical elements of an offence, because the actus reus or mens rea of any particular offence may consist of a complex of physical of physical or mental circumstances. Most offences, on the mental side, require proof