These days the Courts should or ought to concern themselves less with mere technicality and concern themselves more with matters of real substance and substantial issues in contention between the parties in order to render substantial justice to them. Long gone are the heydays of technicality riding roughshod over substantial justice. The Courts have since charted a new path aimed at consolidating substantial justice between the parties and would sparingly accord mere technicality, just for its own sake, any pride of place except in very well deserving cases. Thus, the stance of the Court below, and sought to be justified in this appeal by the learned counsel for the 1st Respondent under issue five, resonates more with undue technicality than with substance and justice. The law nowadays lays more emphasis on the overriding need to render substantial justice over and above technical justice by the Courts. Thus, in the legal jurisprudence in Nigeria today, substantial justice is king.
– B.A. Georgewill, JCA. Ganiyu v. Oshoakpemhe & Ors. (2021) – CA/B/12A/2021