Preface

94
guided by their provisions with the sole aim of arriving at justice or
substantial justice as precisely as possible.
4. Consequently a flagrant violation of the rules will only result in occasioning
injustice. For this reason, therefore, it is necessary for cadis to limit their
actions within the confine of the rules and to guard against any action that
may directly or indirectly be inconsistent with the provisions of the rules.
Otherwise their decisions are bound to be tempered with and reversed on
appeal. In the famous Islamic book of procedure ''Ihkamul-Ahkam'' a
commentry on ''Tuhfatul Hukkam'' page 11 it is postulated that observance
of practice and procedure is one of the six ingredients of a valid judgment
under Sharia and absence of any one of these ingredients renders the
judgment invalid and must be quashed on appeal.
5. It is the pre-requisite, of a claim or Da’awa before a Cadi court to meet the
degree of clarity required by Sharia to qualify for hearing, it must be
realistic, unambiguous, definite, precise, apt, succinct, full and complete and
must not be evasive, vague and bogus. See Tuhfatul-Hukkam p. 20 and Biri
Vs Mairuwa (1996) 8 NWLR (Pt 467) 425. In addition to all that have been
said, rules 77(2) & (3) of the Rules imposes two additional conditions if
Da’awa is in the form of an application for distribution of estate the Da’awa
or claim must contain name of the deceased, the time of his death, the estate
sought to be distributed and names of all heirs and their status. It is also a
condition precedent for a valid claim for the distribution of estate that the
claim must be accompanied by a valuation report. The claim in instant case
is vague, incomplete and ambiguous. It cannot satisfy the requirements of a
valid claim.