Preliminary Objection

The law is settled that a point of law can be raised on a preliminary objection by a party to a suit if the point of law will be decisive of the whole litigation.
Therefore, where there is a point of law which if decided one way is going to be decisive of the whole litigation as in the instant case that advantage ought to be taken of the facilities afforded by the rules of Court to have disposed as soon as raised

ARUEZE & ORS v. CHIEF MIKE A. NWAUKONI LGC(14/12/2018) E

The above decision of the Court of Appeal cannot be faulted and this is where I say that the Respondent is absolutely right. The Appellant had reason to complain but it is the timing or the stage of making his objection that put the spanner in the works. Section 167 of the CPA says that any objection to a Charge for any formal defect on the face of it shall be taken immediately after the Charge has been read over to the Accused; not later.

The purpose of a preliminary objection is to truncate the hearing of an appeal in limine.It is raised where the respondent is satisfied that there is a fundamental defect in the appeal that would affect the Court's jurisdiction to entertain it. Where there are other grounds that could sustain the appeal, a preliminary objection should not be filed. Where the purpose of the objection is merely to challenge the competence of some grounds of appeal, the best procedure is by way of motion on notice. The reason is that the success of the objection would not terminate the hearing of the appeal. See Odunukwe Vs Ofomata (2010) 18 NWLR (Pt.1225) 404 @ 423 C – F; Ndigwe Vs Nwude (1999) 11 NWLR (Pt.626) 314: N.E.P.A. Vs Ango (2001) 15 NWLR (Pt.734) 627; Muhammed v. Military Administrator Plateau State (2001) 18 NWLR (Pt.744) 183.

The purpose of a preliminary objection is to truncate the hearing of an appeal in limine