“Clearly the Court of Appeal acted outside the guiding principles of law where a matter pertaining to an expired process without leave is before them. The Supreme Court and even the Court of Appeal have not shied away from stating what a court should do faced with a process whose life span had extinguished, I refer to the case of Adelakun v Ecu-Line NV (2006) 5 SCNJ 137 at 145 per Onnoghen JSC (as he then was) thus:-

It is settled law that where an appeal requires leave of court and time within which to lodge the appeal has also expired as in the instant appeal, the intending appellant must, in seeking leave to appeal also pray for extension of time within which to appeal in addition to seeking extension of time within which to apply for leave and leave to appeal. In short, an intending appellant who wishes to seek leave of court on any ground of appeal after the expiration of the statutory periods prescribed under section 31 of the Supreme Court Act, 1960, must seek three substantive prayers, to wit:

(a)     Extension of time to seek leave to appeal;

(b)     Leave to appeal;

(c)     Extension of time within which to appeal;…

In the instant case, appellant filed the notice of appeal outside the prescribed three months and has not brought any application to regularize his position, to wit:

(a)  Praying the court for extension of time to seek leave to appeal;

(b)  Leave to appeal;

(c)  Extension of time within which to appeal.

Since appellant has not regularized his position, the appeal is fundamentally defective and incompetent and liable to be struck out.” PER M. U. PETER-ODILI, J.S.C., in

Joseph Hemen Boko V Hon. Benjamin B. Nungwa & Ors

LER [2018]SC. 732/2016

APPEAL NO: SC. 732/2016 https://legalpediaonline.com/joseph-hemen-boko-v-hon-benjamin-b-nungwa-ors/