Over the past 3 years, Lawyers Alert has been monitoring and documenting human rights violations associated with petty offences in Nigeria. This present report is a compendium of documented incidents of petty offences violations reported between October 2022 and September 2023. The data utilized in this report is drawn from inputs made into the Lawyers Alert Documentation Tool (LadocT).

Petty Offences are offences other than felonies or misdemeanours, primarily targeting the poor and underserved in any society. Petty Offences are said to “wear the face of Poverty”, given their predominant impact on the economically disadvantaged in any given community. They include hawking, loitering, alms-seeking, etc.