This is an appeal from an interlocutory decision of the Court of Appeal, which arose out of an interlocutory decision of the Federal High Court presided over by Jinadu, J.

Originally there were two separate actions filed in the Federal High Court, Lagos - namely Suit No. FHC/L/M67/91 and FHC/L/M69/91. Both suits were consolidated, and throughout the trial the plaintiffs in Suit No. FHC/L/M67/91 who were also the defendants in Suit No. FHC/L/M69/91, were referred to as "the plaintiffs". Similarly the defendants in Suit No. FHC/L/M68/91 who were also the plaintiffs in Suit No. FHC/L/M69/91 were referred to as "the defendants". I will, in this judgment, simply refer to the appellants as "the plaintiffs" and the respondent as "the defendants".

The main issue in controversy between the two parties was as to the true ownership of the 1st plaintiff bank. While the plaintiffs maintained that the true members of the 1 st plaintiff bank were the shareholders whose names appeared in the first register, Exh. B, the defendant's case was that the register Exh. B was not the true register of the true owners of the bank as it was prepared mainly for the artificial purpose of complying with the Central Bank time schedule for obtaining a banking licence. It was their case that the true owners of the bank are the persons who had actually been allotted shares by the Board of Directors and who had actually paid their subscriptions in full, and whose names appeared in the second register: Exh. L.

At the trial, both parties called a number of witnesses and tendered a number of documentary exhibits in support of their respective claims. At the conclusion of the case, after due consideration of all the submissions made by each party in support of their respective claims, the learned trial judge, on the 1st day of November, 1991 gave judgment in favour of the plaintiffs.

The respondents applied to the Court of Appeal on 21st November, 1991 for a similar order which that court granted. It is the granting of this prayer in the respondents' favour which is the subject matter of this appeal.