WITH YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULES OF ADMISSIBILITY OF

DOCUMENTS, EXAMINE THE ADMISSIBILITY OF AN UNSIGNED

DOCUMENT

WRITTEN BY:

OKON, EMEDIONG BASSEY

17/LA/2289
FACULTY OF LAW,
UNIVERSITY OF UYO, UYO.

SUBMITTED TO:
DR. EKOKOI SOLOMON
THE TUTORIAL LECTURER,
LAW OF EVIDENCE
FACULTY OF LAW
UNIVERSITY OF UYO, UYO.

NOVEMBER, 2022
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ADMISSIBILITY OF DOCUMENTS

3. ADMISSIBILITY OF AN UNSIGNED DOCUMENT

4. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADMISSIBILITY OF AN UNSIGNED

DOCUMENT VERSUS PROBATIVE VALUE OF AN UNSIGNED
DOCUMENT

5. THE PROBATIVE VALUE OF AN UNSIGNED DOCUMENT

6. CONCLUSION
 INTRODUCTION

The Law of evidence is essentially concerned with questions bordering on

which facts in a matter, are legally admissible, and the the legal means to prove
them. To determine which facts are admissible, the relevancy of the fact to the
fact in issue must be considered. The basic principle governing admissibility is
that a piece of evidence must be relevant to the fact in issue for it be
admissible.

Section 1 of the Evidence Act, 2011 provides thus:

Evidence (which is the means by which facts are proved to be true or untrue,)
may be given in any suit or proceeding of the existence or non-existence of
every fact in issue and of such other facts as are hereinafter declared to be
relevant, and of no others: provided that:

a. the court may exclude evidence of facts which though relevant or deemed to
be relevant to the issue, appears to it to be too remote to be material in all the
circumstances of the case.

b. This section shall not enable any person to give evidence of a fact which he is
disentitled to prove by any provision of the law for the time being in force.

Given that Section 1 of the act provides for evidence to be given to prove the
existence of non-existence of a fact in issue, the use of documents is one of the
ways for making such proof.

Documentary evidence is a statement made in a document which is offered to

the court in proof of any fact in issue. Since the enactment of the Evidence Act
of 2011, the meaning and scope of "document" has expanded beyond the idea of
its use in common parlance. Section 258(1) of the Act defines document thus:

"documents" Includes

(a) books, maps; plans, graphs, drawings, photographs, and also includes any
matter expressed or described upon any substance by means of letters, figures or
marks or by more than one of these means, intended to be used or which may be
used for the purpose of recording that matter;
(b) any disc, tape, sound track or other device in which sounds or other data (not
being visual images) are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid
of some other equipment) of being reproduced from it; and

(c) any film, negative, tape or other device in which one or more visual images
are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other
equipment) of being reproduced from it; and

(d) any device by means of which information, is recorded, stored or retrievable

including computer output;

Admissibility of Documents:
Generally, Section 1 of the Act makes admissibility of any piece of evidence to
be dependent on relevancy, but a document which is relevant may be
inadmissible if it is not pleaded or it does not satisfy the requirements set out in
Section 89 of the Evidence Act, 2011.1
Apart from the general requirements which any piece of evidence must meet,
there are other requirements that a document must meet before it can become
admissible. The conditions are that:

1. It must be pleaded;
2. It must be relevant to the inquiry before the court; and
3. It must be admissible in law2

On documents being admissible in law, Chevron Ltd v Aderibigbe (supra) the

court stated interalia:

"On Criteria governing admissibility of documentary evidence – The test for

admissibility is relevance; the source by which the document has been obtained
is immaterial. A document is admissible in evidence if it is relevant to the facts
in issue and admissible in law."

When a piece of evidence is admissible in law, what is meant is that the

evidence is relevant and is one which can be admitted in a judicial proceedings

1
Gani Fawehinmi v. IGP. (2007) 7 NWLR (PT. 665) 481 at 524-526
2
Chevron Ltd v Aderibigbe (2012) NWLR (PT 1289)
because it does not offend any exclusionary rule.3 Section 1 is to the effect that
evidence may only be given of two classes namely:
I. Facts in issue and;
II. Facts relevant to the facts in issue

Thus, the exclusionary rule is that the court may not admit a relevant fact if the
same is considered by the court to be too remote to be material.

Relevancy: Since the doctrine of admissibility is intertwined with relevancy, it

is pertinent for one to understand how this term applies to evidence in law. The
Evidence Act, 2011( as amended), fails to define what "relevant" or "relevant
fact" is. However, the meaning of these terms can be deduced from the
combined provisions of Section 4 to 13.
Philipson4 defines relevant facts as “facts which, as a matter of ordinary logic or
experience, tend to render the existence of other facts probable or improbable.”

Thus, facts are relevant if:

I. It applies to a matter at hand;
II. It is logically connected and tending to prove or disprove a matter in
issue, or having appreciable probative value; and
III. It tends rationally to persuade the adjudicating tribunal in an attempt to
prove or disprove a fact.

Section 3 of the repealed Evidence Act provided that: “One fact is said to be
relevant to another when the one is connected with the other in any of the ways
referred to in the provisions of (the) Act relating to the relevancy of fact.”

ADMISSIBILITY OF AN UNSIGNED DOCUMENT

Any document is admissible in evidence whether it be signed or unsigned, so far
as it is pleaded and meets other requirements for ADMISSIBILITY of
documentary evidence. However, the lack of probative value of an unsigned
document makes such documents useless.

In the case of M.S. Co. S.A. v. Enemaku5, the court held inter alia:

3
J. A. Dada Law of Evidence 2015
4
Philipson, Evidence, 11th Ed. Article 281
5
(2012) 11 NWLR (Pt. 1312) 583
“An unsigned document is admissible if it is pleaded depending on the
circumstances of the case. In the instant case, exhibit D was properly admissible
but, being unsigned, had no probative value and it was worthless as an
adjudicative tool to arrive at any findings of fact. In other words, there was no
credible evidence to show that goods worth the sum of USD 120,000.00 were
shipped by the 1st respondent.”

The court in Omega bank (Nig.) Plc v. O.B.C. Ltd.6 succinctly put it that:
“On Admissibility of unsigned document -
Admissibility is governed by the pleadings, as it is the pleading that will state
the fact upon which evidence and document will be admitted. In so far as what
is pleaded is relevant, it is admissible. This is so because relevancy governs
admissibility. In the instant case, what the respondent pleaded was an unsigned
document. It is therefore out of the purview of section 91(4) of the Evidence
Act which requires signature. The document was relevant to the respondent's
case and it sought to rely on it. Whether it would attract the needed weight or
not because it was not signed is another matter. In so far as the unsigned
document was pleaded and relevant, it was admissible.”

Furthermore, the court agreed to admissibility of unsigned documents in the

case of Orija v. Akogun 7 and it held thus:
“On Whether and when unsigned document can be used by court -
If a document is relevant and has been proved to be relevant, notwithstanding
that it is signed or unsigned, it shall be binding on the court that receives same,
in view of the fact that the courts have been enjoined to strive more for
substantial justice and to shun technical justice. Because technicalities should
not be allowed to defeat the course of justice.”

It is now clear that an unsigned document is admissible in evidence, but it has

no probative value. This leads us to understanding what probative value is when
it comes to evidence.
Probative value is the weight of evidence submitted to prove any fact in issue. It
is the probability of evidence to reach its proof purpose of a relevant fact in

6
(2002) 16 NWLR (Pt. 794) 483
7
(2009) 10 NWLR (Pt. 1150) 437
issue.8 Thus, the courts may exclude evidence when its probative value is
outweighed by the prejudice the evidence may cause.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADMISSIBILITY OF AN UNSIGNED

DOCUMENT VERSUS PROBATIVE VALUE OF AN UNSIGNED
DOCUMENT:

The court in Enabuzor v. State9 stated inter alia:

On Whether fact that evidence is admissible means it has any Probative value or
weight -
The fact that evidence, oral or documentary, is admissible does not mean that it
has any Probative value or any weight at all.

THE PROBATIVE VALUE OF AN UNSIGNED DOCUMENT

On Whether fact that evidence is admissible means it has any Probative value or
weight -
The fact that evidence, oral or documentary, is admissible does not mean that it
has any Probative value or any weight at all. This was clearly stated in
Enabuzor v. State.

The court has made it known in several cases that an unsigned document has no
probative value. Here are some cases to this effect:

Omega Bank (Nig.) Plc. v. O.B.C. Ltd.10:

On value of unsigned document -
An unsigned document is a worthless document which does not have any
efficacy in law. Thus, where a document is not signed, it may not be admitted in
evidence. Even if it is admitted in evidence, the court should not attach any
Probative value to it. This is because, a document which is not signed has no
origin in terms of its maker. In this case, since the two makers or writers of
exhibit "P6" did not sign the exhibit, it was not available to the High Court and
the Court of Appeal to attach Probative value to it.
8
Cornell Law School
(https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/probative_value#:~:text=Probative%20value%20is%20the%20proba
bility,how%20slight%20its%20probability%20is.)
9
(2022) 10 NWLR (Pt. 1839) 509
10
(2005) 8 NWLR (Pt. 928) 547
Ojo v. ABT Associates Incorporated 11:
On Probative value of unsigned document -
An unsigned document is a worthless piece of paper. No Probative value can be
foisted on it and it ought to be discountenanced by the court.

Fasehun v. A.-G., Federation 12:

An unsigned document is worthless and void. In the instant case the medical
report being unsigned is worthless and of no Probative value.

CONCLUSION:
An unsigned document may be admitted in evidence, but there is no use of
going through this process because in the end, it will turn out to be a worthless
piece of paper, which is not effective in the proof of the existence of
non-existence of any fact in issue.

11
(2017) 9 NWLR (Pt. 1570) 167
12
(2006) 6 NWLR (Pt. 975) 141