The Bank of the North Ltd is the 1st Appellant in this appeal, with Alhaji Zakari Gombe as the 2nd Appellant. They were 1st and 2nd defendants in the suit filed by Alhaji Haruna Aliyu in the Kano High Court in which the plaintiff claimed that the purported sale by public auction of his three building properties at Gombe by the 1st Appellant to the 2nd Appellant, without a deed of mortgage being made is wrong illegal and void. The plaintiff also claimed an injunction to restrain the servants and agents of the appellant as defendants in the court below.

The plaintiff now Respondent claimed in the court below the alternative “a declaration that the plaintiff is entitled to compensation in the of N500, 000 being the current value of properties and N10, 000 as general damages.” In the brief of argument of the appellant, see p. 1 the appellant submitted that the plaintiff in the court below claimed in his statement of claim, only the followings: -

The Appellant’s have submitted that the last quoted portion thereon constituted the plaintiffs claim before the lower court and said as the statement of claim superseded the writ of summons the quoted portion above was the only claim of the plaintiff before the court. That is the correct statement of the rules of pleadings. It is therefore on the above quoted claim that the learned judge of the lower court made his judgment delivered on 24/6/94. The learned judge found for the respondent and accordingly declared the public auction of the respondent’s properties null and void.

Being dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, the appellants appealed