JUSTIFICATION OF SELF DEFENCE

Good morning, friends.
Somewhere in Nigeria, a gang of two bandits invaded a three-bedroom apartment with the occupants inside (a man and his family) at about twelve midnight.Shortly after they broke in, they began to ransack the whole apartment for valuables.Accidentally, one of these bandits stumbled on a naked live wire in the process and got electrocuted. As the other one was shocked to see his partner getting electrocuted, he unconsciously dropped his AK 47 rifle on the floor, where the man, their victim was standing.This man quickly used this opportunity to pick the gun and immediately point it at at the criminal ordering him to put his hands up.His wife asked him to shoot and kill the criminal immediately but the man would not, saying he did not want to take the law into his hands. As this man and his wife kept arguing on whether or not to shoot, this criminal did not stay where he was ordered to put his hands in the air as he was moving gradually in the direction of the man with his hands still in the air.The man still did not want to shoot as he did not want to take the law into his hands.Despite the fact that it was glaring that the criminal was coming in his direction to snatch the gun from him and attack him, the man still found it difficult to use the gun just because he did not want to take the law into his hands by killing the robber.

If you were in this guy's shoes, what would you do with the gun in your hands? Is it lawful to kill the robber in the circumstances?

THE LEGAL POSITION
The above scenario falls under criminal law.Basically, the law forbids taking the life of another person.However, there are exceptions to this rule.In the above scenario, the man whose house was invaded could pull the trigger in the circumstances in apprehension of the hundred per cent probability that the robber was coming to snatch the gun from him to kill him.The rule here is that there must be the use of force commensurate with the force or danger to be countered.In the circumstances being discussed, the man could be excused in law to shoot the criminal but not possibly to the point of death because the use of deadly force may not be warranted in the circumstances.At least, putting a bullet in  the robbers's leg might suffice to overpower him so that he could be handed over to the police to bear the full wait of the law.

So, in the scenario,the guy would not have been considered to have put the law into his hands if he had at least shot the robber in one of his legs.

Thank you for your attention.

See you again on Monday.