Man Drags Friend To Court Over Loan

A man, Samuel Ani appeared in a Magistrate Court in Karu, Abuja today for allegedly denying receiving a loan from his friend one, Raymond Osita. 

Raymond Osita who is a car dealer told the court that on April 23rd, 2018 the defendant approached him to borrow money for his business. After pleading and promising to pay back, he gave him five hundred thousand naira through a Fidelity bank cheque which was to be returned without interest in 10 months. 

He went on to say that they were friends, so he had the confidence to give him the money. 

Samuel Ani pleaded not guilty and denied receiving a cheque of N500, 000 from Raymond Osita who then presented the court with a photocopy of the cheque which he had to apply for in the bank as the defendants denied the money. 

Mr Samuel presented the court with a letter headed paper accompanied by the photocopy from Fidelity bank. 

The plaintiff prayed the court to help him get his money back, he went on to ask for the Ninety-Five Thousand Naira he paid the lawyer for the case and other untold hardship he faced since 2018. 

The defence counsel Barr. Emeka Nduowo opposed the magnity of the evidence on grounds of objection and told the court that the letter doesn’t go in line with the requirements of the evidence act, that there must be a certificate of compliance.

He said that for an electronically generated document, there ought to be a certificate attached as a rule of the court. Having not followed the procedure following an electronically generated document, it can not be admitted as evidence. 

He prayed the court to chasten the document to the dustbin where it belongs. 

He also prayed the court to set a date to enable him to defend his case and counterclaim.

In his ruling, the Chief Magistrate Oyeyipo having considered submissions from both parties said that the plaintiff was guilty in evidence of photocopy, according to Section 84 of evidence act of the feasibility and authenticity of the electronically generated document and adjourned the case to 16th November 2020 for defence.