PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE OF THE CUSTOMARY COURT OF APPEAL IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA 1999

Abstract

The Customary Court of Appeal occupies a singular place in the judicial architecture of the six South-West states of Nigeria — Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti. It stands as the apex court for matters involving the customary law of predominantly Yoruba-speaking communities, exercising appellate and supervisory jurisdiction derived from sections 280 to 284 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and supplemented by a body of state enabling legislation. Despite the constitutional entrenchment of the court, its practice and procedure remain, in significant respects, unevenly developed across the six states, with some states (notably Ogun) completing the formal constitution of their court only as recently as January 2020. This article offers a systematic examination of the practice and procedure of the Customary Court of Appeal in South-West Nigeria. It traces the constitutional and legislative framework of the court, analyses the scope of its appellate and supervisory jurisdiction, examines the procedural mechanisms governing the initiation and conduct of appeals, and identifies the evidentiary rules applicable in a jurisdiction from which the Evidence Act has been formally excluded. It further considers the pathway of appeals from the Customary Court of Appeal to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The article concludes by identifying the principal challenges facing the court in the region — principally, the restrictive judicial interpretation of the phrase 'questions of customary law' and the absence of harmonised procedural rules across the Southwest states — and advances proposals for reform.