The Rationale and Jurisprudence Of Judgment Review at the Supreme Court Of Nigeria
The finality of Supreme Court judgments is fundamental to certainty in the administration of justice. As Oputa JSC famously observed in Adegoke Motors Ltd v Adesanya (1989) 13 NWLR (Pt 109) 250, ‘We are final not because we are infallible; rather we are infallible only because we are final.’ Nevertheless, the Supreme Court retains a strictly limited jurisdiction to correct accidental slips or omissions and, in exceptional circumstances, to set aside judgments affected by recognised defects such as fraud, nullity, want of jurisdiction, or fundamental procedural irregularity.
