(ii) where the residue is not in terms wholly disposed of, the registrar may, if he is satisfied that the testator has
nevertheless disposed of the whole or substantially the whole of the estate as ascertained at the time of the
application for the grant, allow a grant to be made (subject however to rule 53 of this Order) to any legatee or
devisee entitled to, or to a share in the estate so disposed of, without regard to the persons entitled to share in any
residue not disposed of by the will;
(e) any specific legatee or devisee or any creditor or subject to paragraph (3) of rule 44 of this Order, the
personal representative of any such person or, where the estate is not wholly disposed of by will, any person
who, notwithstanding that the amount of the estate is such that he has no immediate beneficial interest therein,
may have a beneficial interest in the event of an accretion thereto;
(f) any specific legatee or devisee entitled on the happening of any contingency or any person having no interest
under the will of the deceased who would have been entitled to a grant if the deceased had died wholly intestate.
22. Where a gift to any person fails by reason of the fact that he is an attesting witness or the spouse of an
attesting witness, that person shall not have any right to a grant as a beneficiary named in the will, without
prejudice to his right to a grant in any other capacity.
23. Every applicant for a grant of probate or letters of administration with the will attached shall file in the Court
a true declaration of all the personal property of the deceased and the value thereof:
Provided that for the purpose of the fees payable on probate and such letters of administration the value of the
property in respect of which the grant is made shall be deemed not to include(a) any gratuity payable by the Government of the Federation of Nigeria, or the Government of a State, or the
Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to the estate of any person formerly employed by either of such Governments
or by a Statutory Corporation;
(b) any sum of money payable to an estate from a Provident Fund established under the provisions of any written
law.
24. (1) In no case shall the Court issue probate or letters of administration with the will attached until all
inquiries which the Court sees fit to institute have been answered to its satisfaction.
(2) The Court shall, however, afford as great a facility for the obtaining of probate or such letters of
administration as is consistent with due regard to the prevention of error and fraud.
25. A notice to prohibit a grant of probate or administration with the will attached may be filed in the Court.
26. (1) The notice shall remain in force three months only from the day of filing, but it may be renewed from
time to time and the notice shall not affect a grant made on the day on which the notice is filed.
(2) The person filing the notice shall be warned by a warning in writing delivered at the place mentioned in the
notice as his address.
(3) Notices in the nature of citations shall be given in such manner as the Court directs.
27. Suits respecting probate or administration shall be instituted and carried on as nearly as may be in the like
manner and subject to the same Rules of procedure as suits in respect of ordinary claims.
Custody of Wills
28. Any person may, in his lifetime, deposit for safe custody in the Court at Abuja his own will, sealed up under
his own seal and the seal of the Court.
29. (1) Every original will, of which probate or administration with will annexed is granted, shall be filed and
kept in the Probate Registry, in such manner as to secure at once the due preservation and convenient inspection
of it.