Effanga Bassey Effiom V. Bassey Efiom Edet (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

JOSEPH OLUBUNMI KAYODE OYEWOLE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is in respect of an appeal against the judgment of the High Court of Cross River State sitting at Ikot Nakanda in Akpabuyo Judicial Division, delivered by Anjor J. on the 15th January, 2014.

The Appellant had filed a petition for the dissolution of her marriage to the respondent in response to which the Respondent filed an Answer wherein he disputed the facts averred to by the Appellant in the petition and concluded by seeking some reliefs. In the course of the proceedings, the Appellant discontinued her petition and it was struck out but the Respondent chose to proceed with his reliefs contained in his Answer which was tried by the learned trial Judge as a Cross-petition and resulted in the judgment in contention herein in this appeal.

To ventilate her dissatisfaction with the said judgment, the appellant filed a Notice of Appeal on the 10th April, 2014 which said Notice of Appeal was subsequently amended via the Amended Notice of Appeal filed on the 30th October, 2014 containing 3 grounds.

?At the hearing of the appeal, Mr. Ben the learned

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counsel for Respondent drew attention to his preliminary objection contained argued in the Respondent’s brief filed on the 26th October, 2015.

That being so, the take off point in this judgment shall be the said preliminary objection which was responded to by the Appellant in the Reply brief filed on the 6th November, 2015.

The preliminary objection seeks the dismissal of the appeal on four grounds.

?The first argument of Mr. Ben was that the appeal touched on a point that was not canvassed before the trial Court and was raised on appeal without leave of Court. He referred to AKEREDOLU VS MIMIKO (2014) ALL FWLR (PT 728) 829 at 884, SAUDE vs ABDULAHI (1989) 4 NWLR (PT 116) 389 and MTN (NIG) COMM LTD vs ALUKO (2014) FWLR (PT 732) 1701 at 1730.

To this argument Mr. Offong the learned counsel for the Appellant responded by outlining the conditions for raising new issues on appeal and referred to AJAYI vs N.U.R.T.W. (2009) 8 NWLR (PT 1144) 423.

The learned counsel however submitted that the issue here was not new as it was raised before the lower Court and referred to the record of appeal, specifically to the final address of the learned

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counsel for the Appellant and urged the Court to discountenance the objection on this ground.