Section 106 Evidence Act 2011
Section 106 Evidence Act 2011 is titled ‘Proof of other official documents‘. It is under Part V (DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE) of the Act. It states as follows:
The following public documents may be proved as follows –
(a) Acts of the National Assembly, Laws of the House of Assembly of a State or bye – laws of a Local Government Council, proclamations, treaties or other acts of State, orders, notifications, nominations, appointments and other official communications of the Government of the Federation or of any State Government or Local Government in Nigeria –
(i) which appear in the Federal Gazette or the Gazette of a state, by the production of such Gazette, and shall be prima facie proof of any fact of a public nature which they were intended to notify,
(ii) by a copy of the document certified by the officer who authorised or made such order or issued such official communication,
(iii) by the records of the government departments concerned certified by the heads of those departments respectively or by the Minister, or in respect of matters to which the executive authority of a State or Local Government extends by the Governor or the Chairman of the Local Government Council, or any person nominated by such Governor or Chairman, or
(iv) by any document purporting to be printed by order of Government;
(b) the proceedings of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, by the minutes of that body or by published Acts or abstracts, or by copies purporting to be printed by order of Government;
(c) the proceedings of a State House Assembly, by the minutes of that body or by published Laws, or by copies purporting to be printed by order of Government;
(d) the proceedings of a Local Government Council, by the minutes of that body or by published bye – laws, or by copies purporting to be printed by order of the Local Government;
(e) the Acts or Ordinances of any part of the Commonwealth, and the subsidiary legislation made under their authority, by a copy purporting to be printed by the Government Printer of any such country;
(f) proclamations, treaties or acts of State of any other country, by journals published by their authority or commonly received in that country as such, or by a copy certified under the seal of the country or sovereign;
(g) books printed or published under the authority of the Government of a foreign country, and purporting to contain the statutes, code or other written law of such country, and also printed and published books of reports of decisions of the courts of such country, and books proved to be commonly admitted in such courts as evidence of the law of such country, shall be admissible as evidence of the law of such foreign country;
(h) any judgment, order or other judicial proceedings outside Nigeria, or any legal document, filed or deposited in any court –
(i) by a copy sealed with the seal of a foreign or other court to which the original document belongs or, in the event of such court having no seal, to be signed by the judge, or, if there be more than one judge, by anyone of the judges of the said court, and such judge must attach to his signature a statement in writing on the said copy that the court of which he is judge has no seal, or
(ii) by a copy which purports to be certified in any manner which is certified by any representative of Nigeria to be the manner commonly in use in that country for the certification of copies of judicial records;
(i) public documents of any other class elsewhere than in Nigeria, by the original, or by a copy certified by the legal keeper of such documents, with a certificate under the seal of a notary public, or of a consul or diplomatic agent that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original, and upon proof of the character of the document according to the law of the foreign country.