Notice to Produce

If the Appellant strongly wanted some facilities which were not made available to him, he would have applied formerly to the trial Court for an order compelling the Respondent to make available those facilities which he required for his defence. In the passage which I reproduced elsewhere in this judgment in the case of Ebele Okoye v C.O.P (Supra) which learned counsel for the Appellant cited and placed so much reliance upon, this Court clearly stated that any request for facilities necessary for the preparation of the defence of an accused must be made to the Court.

NWEKE v. STATE LGC(13/4/2017) B – C

A party on whom notice to produce is served is not under any obligation to produce the document. The service of the notice to produce only entitles the party serving the notice to adduce secondary evidence of the document in question by virtue of Section 91 of the Evidence Act 2011. It is unnecessary to serve a notice to produce, when the secondary copies of those documents are not in the possession of the party serving the notice.

NWEKE v. STATE LGC(13/4/2017) B

A party on whom notice to produce is served is not under any obligation to produce the document. The service of the notice to produce only entitles the party serving the notice to adduce secondary evidence