The Appellant as Plaintiff in the High Court of Justice of Kano State sought the following reliefs against the Respondents:-

Pleadings were exchanged by the parties. After the Appellant had given evidence and closed his case, the Defendants/Respondents filed their statement of defence. On 18/4/2000 learned Counsel for the Respondents moved a motion for the dismissal of the suit for being statute barred. The learned Counsel for the Appellant filed a counter affidavit. Both learned Counsel addressed the Court F on the motion, but the learned trial Judge rather than rule on it made the following observation:-

"I am of the opinion that the implication of this application will entail my giving a ruling which in effect would have the implication of a final judgment. And because of this I wish to reserve my ruling until the end of the trial and make application and the ruling to form part of my judgment."

Indeed the learned trial Judge after going through the gamut of appraising the evidence before him found as follows in his judgment in the final analysis:-

"At the end of the day I find and hold that this suit was filed outside the 3 months period required by the law and is therefore statute barred."

Aggrieved by the decision the Plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeal Kaduna division. The Court affirmed the decision of the Court of first instance and dismissed the appeal. Again the Plaintiff was aggrieved by the dismissal of his appeal, and he has appealed to this Court.