Evidence

Unfortunately, the testimonies, which he, [the appellant], adduced were so evidently contradictory and inconsistent that they could not establish that the said exhibit was the result sheet of a primary election, the conduct of which, was authorized by the National Working Committee of the second respondent as required by law. The effect is that these conflicting versions render his evidence very unreliable and untenable, C. D. C. (Nig.) Ltd v SCOA (Nig.) Ltd [2007] 6 NWLR (pt. 1030) 300. This must be so because such contradictions in the evidence of the plaintiff and his witness are disastrous; they, actually, have the effect of destroying the case of the plaintiff, Audu v Guta [2004] 4 NWLR (pt 864) 463.
As this Court held in National Investment Properties Co. Ltd v The Thompson Organization Ltd and Ors (1969) NMLR 99, 104:
A Plaintiff must call evidence in support of his pleadings and evidence which is in fact adduced, which is contrary to his pleadings, should never be admitted. It makes no difference that the other side did not object or that the Judge did not reject it. It is of course the duty of counsel to object to, in one word, inadmissible evidence; but if notwithstanding this, evidence is still, through oversight or otherwise admitted, then it is the duty of the Court when it comes to give judgment to treat the inadmissible evidence as if it had never been admitted.
The explanation for this prescription is simple: the standard of proof is on the preponderance of evidence.
Thus, where the evidence adduced by the plaintiff is contradictory, he would have failed to discharge the onus of proof on him, Yakubu v Jauroyel and Ors (2014) LPELR-22732 (SC) 69; E -G. That was the fate of the plaintiff's case at the trial Court. His case must, therefore, fail.

It is the primary duty of the trial Court to evaluate evidence and where the credibility of witnesses is involved, the lower Court's inference from the evidence of witnesses it did not see and assess, it is further contended, cannot substitute that of the trial Court.