Explanation On Hearsay Evidence

“It’s all about the he said she said bullshit” – Limp Bizkit “Believe only half of what you see, little of what you read, and nothing of what you hear” – old saying.

Hearsay often seems to be a very slippery creature, hard to grasp and hold long enough to look clearly at, analyse and or understand. Hearsay may often seem to be perfectly obvious, crystal clear, in some circumstances, and then in others it may suddenly turns opaque, and sullenly resists understanding. However, hearsay has been described to means what a person is heard to say or whatever a person declares on information given by someone else. Instructively, hearsay is a piece of evidence if it is the evidence of the contents of a statement by a witness not called to testify or content of  a document tendered by a person other than the maker of the document. (See; Wither v State (1992) NWLR (pt 223) 257) Under Section 37 of the Evidence Act, Cap E14, 2011, Hearsay is defined to means a statement:

a.     Oral or written made otherwise  than by a witness in a proceeding; or

b.     Contained or recorded in a book, document or any record whatever, proof of which is not admissible under any provision of this Act, which is tendered in evidence for the purpose of proving the truth of the matter stated in it.