"The principle of hire purchase contract as contained in Halbury's Laws of England, 1st Edition Volume 1 page 554 states thus:-

'The contract of hire-purchase, or even more accurately the contract of hire with an option to purchase is one under which the owner of a chattel lets it out on hire and undertakes to sell it to or that it shall become the property of the hirer conditionally on his making a certain number of payments. Until the making however of the last payment, no property in the chattel passes where the contract between the parties amounts to an absolute agreement to sell and buy, whether the instrument be called a hire purchase agreement or not, the property in the chattel passes upon delivery, provided that such was the intention of the parties.

The difference between a contract of sale at a price payable by instalment and a contract of hire purchase is that in the former, the purchaser has no option of terminating the contract and returning the chattel, whereas in the latter there is none.

In each case, the substance of the transaction or the agreement must be looked at and not the mere words."

Per MUKHTAR, J.S.C in Alhaji Jimoh Ajagbe Vs Layiwola Idowu (2012) 37 W.R.N Page 18