Order 9
Affidavits
1. Upon any motion, petition or summons, evidence may be given by affidavit; but the Court, or a Judge in
chambers may, on the application of either party, order the attendance for cross-examination of the person
making any such affidavit and where, after such an order has been made, the person in question does not attend,
his affidavit shall not be used as evidence unless by special leave of the Court or a Judge in chambers.
2. Every affidavit shall be titled in the cause or matter in which it is sworn; but in every case in which there are
more than one plaintiff or defendant, it shall be sufficient to state the full names of the first plaintiff and first
defendant respectively, and indicate that there are other plaintiffs or defendants, as the case may be.
3. The Court or a Judge in chambers may receive any affidavit sworn for the purpose of being used in any cause
or matter notwithstanding; any defect by misdescription of parties or otherwise in the title or jurat, or any other
irregularity in the form thereof, and may direct a memorandum to be made on the document that it has been so
received.
4. Where a special time is limited for filing affidavit, no affidavit filed after that time shall be used, unless by
leave of the Court or a Judge in chambers.
5. Except by leave of the Court or a Judge in chambers, no order made ex parte in Court founded on any affidavit
shall be of any force parts unless the affidavit on which the application was made was actually made before the
order was applied for and produced or filed at the time of making the motion.
6. The party intending to use any affidavit in support of any application made by him in chambers shall give
notice to the other parties concerned in that behalf.
7. All affidavits which have been previously made and read in Court upon any proceeding in a cause or matter
may be used before the Judge in chambers.
8. Every alteration in an account verified by affidavit to be left at chambers shall be marked with the initials of
the commissioner before whom the affidavit is sworn, and the alterations shall not be made by erasure.
9. Accounts, extracts from registers, particulars of creditors' debts and other documents referred to by affidavit,
shall not be annexed to the affidavit, or referred to in the affidavit as annexed but shall be referred to as exhibits.
10. Every certificate on an exhibit referred to in an affidavit signed by the commissioner before whom the
affidavit is sworn shall be marked with the short title of the cause or matter.
11. Sections 77 to 89 of the Evidence Act which set out provisions governing affidavits, shall apply as if they
were part of these Rules.
12. A document purporting to have affixed or impressed thereon or subscribed thereto the seal or signature of a
Court, Judge, Notary Public or person having authority to administer oath in any part of the Commonwealth
outside Nigeria in testimony of an affidavit being taken before it or him in that part shall be admitted in evidence
without proof of the seal or signature of that Court, Judge, Notary Public or person.