PURPOSE OF EXHIBITS IN A CASE

EXHIBITS ATTACHED TO AFFIDAVIT ARE NOT TENDERED PER SE BUT ARE PART OF AFFIDAVIT

✓ Ojuya v. Nzeogwu (1996) 1 NWLR (Pt. 427) 713 per Ige JCA at 722. “It is my view that the learned trial Judge was wrong in holding that all the attached exhibits were inadmissible without making reference to each exhibit specifically. This being a case decided on affidavit evidence the attached exhibits are not formally tendered as such in evidence and the contents therein are not disputed hence they cannot be dismissed by a wave of the hand on mere technicality”.

✓ In Bature v. Savannah Bank (Nig) Ltd (1998) 4 NWLR (Pt. 16 546) 438, 444, Ogebe, JCA, as he then was, dealt with the same question in the following manner: “For the appellant’s counsel to argue that certain documents were admissible or inadmissible is completely irrelevant. I therefore find it unnecessary to go into the issue of admissibility of the documents being questioned. The documents were exhibited in the affidavit for judgment and the trial Court merely looked at them … They were not admitted in evidence formally”.

✓ Ezechukwu v. Onwuka (2016) 5 NWLR (Pt. 1506) 529, 562, Peter–Odili, JSC, held thus: “However, it is also trite law that all documents attached to an affidavit …form part of the affidavit in question and it is not possible to raise objection to its admissibility in the affidavit of the respondent without running counter to Section 87 of the Evidence Act 1990”.