OPINION EVIDENCE
An expert has been defined as ‘a person with the status of an authority (in a subject) by reason of special skill, training or knowledge; a specialist’.
Instructively, on the other hands an opinion may be given by a witness as an expert or non-expert. An opinion generally is what a person thinks, beliefs or inference about something or a witness’s view about facts in dispute, as opposed to personal knowledge of facts themselves. It also conveys a professional judgment on the part of a professional.
Dagayya v State. The expression also means, what people in general think about something. Thus, an expert’s opinion is a reasoned conclusion drawn from specialized knowledge based on facts which the expert has observed, assumed, or been instructed to assume.It is important to know that evidence given by an expert, if it is consistence to the case at hand the weight that will be attached to it will be high.