A person is responsible for his action only if he has legal capacity. If a person has no capacity either due to young age or infirmity of mind, then if he does what society holds as crime or tort, it is only fair that he should not be prosecuted. A person is said to have capacity when he has a mature, alert, and rational mind. Only then will he be able to determine rationally what is and what is not, in his interest and what he ought not to do. The following are some statutory provisions:
- A person under the age of 7 years is not criminally responsible for his actions of commission or omission (because he is doli incapax). This is an irrebuttable presumption of law
- A person under the age of 12 years is not criminally responsible for an act or omission, unless it is proved that at the time of doing the act or making the omission, he had capacity to know that he ought not to do the act or make the omission (a rebuttable presumption which can be discharged by showing ‘’mischievous discretion)
- A male person under the age of 14 years is presumed to be incapable of committing rape (irrebuttable presumption)
- A child under 14 years cannot be arraigned in an open court in Nigeria. He cannot be convicted, and cannot be sent to prison. Such a person can only be sent to a borstal home if found liable for the wrongdoing. The words ‘’convicted’’ and ‘crime’ or ‘offence’ are npt to be use with reference to him
- A person under the age of 17 years cannot be sentenced to death in Nigeria.
- A person under the age of 18 years has no contractual capacity except for necessaries and contracts of beneficial service.
- Under the new child rights Act, a woman cannot be married before the age of 18 years. Any person who marries such a woman and consummates the marriage, commits statutory rape regardless of whether she consented, because the woman is presumed in law not to know what she was doing.
- A lunatic is not responsible for his actions (criminal or contractual) except those acts are carried out during his lucid intervals.
- An illiterate who signs a document that has not been read over and interpreted to him in the language which he understands, is not liable in any obligations contained therein, but he can enforce his rights or benefits contained therein against the other (literate) party
- An undischarged bankrupt lacks legal capacity to enter into contracts.
- A child can claim for injury done to it even before its birth. In the law of tort, a child injured even in the mother’s womb can claim damages should the child be born with deformity that can be ascribed to the injury
