LEGAL PRINCIPLE: CRIMINAL LAW – Robbery – Definition and Elements under Section 401 of the Criminal Code
PRINCIPLE STATEMENT
Any person who steals anything and, at or immediately before or immediately after the time of stealing it, uses or threatens to use actual violence to any person or property in order to obtain or retain the thing stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to its being stolen or retained is said to commit robbery.
RATIO DECIDENDI (SOURCE)
Per Belgore, JSC, in Otti v. State (1993) NLC-2491991(SC) at pp. 5; Paras A--B.
"Any person who steals anything and, at or immediately before or immediately after the time of stealing it uses or threatens to use actual violence to any person or property in order to obtain or retain the thing stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to its being stolen or retained is said to commit robbery."
EXPLANATION / SCOPE
Robbery comprises two elements: (1) stealing—taking property with intent to permanently deprive the owner; (2) violence or threat of violence—actual force or threat against person or property. The violence must be temporal (at, immediately before, or immediately after stealing) and purposeful (to obtain/retain stolen property or overcome resistance). Both elements must coincide—mere theft without violence is not robbery; violence unconnected to theft is assault/battery but not robbery. The temporal element (“immediately before or after”) allows brief time frames but not extended periods. Purpose requirement means violence must facilitate the theft—violence for other reasons doesn’t constitute robbery even if theft also occurs