Facts:

The respondent filed a suit against the appellant at the Superior Court of the Judicature, High Court of Justice, Accra, Ghana and obtained judgment in its favour. Consequently, the respondent applied to the Federal High Court, Lagos Division under the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments procedure for the registration and enforcement of the judgment in Nigeria. After hearing the application, the court made an order in May, 2009 registering the judgment as a foreign judgment. Upon being served with the notice of registration of the foreign judgment, the appellant filed two applications by motion on notice, one seeking extension of time to apply to set aside the order registering the judgment and the other, an order setting aside the registration of the foreign judgment.

After hearing the parties on the applications, the court dismissed the applications and refused to set aside the order registering the judgment as a foreign judgment. The court held among other things, that the appellant’s reliance on allegation of
fraud in order to have the order set aside was unsubstantiated. The appellant was aggrieved and filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division praying the court to reverse the decision of the trial court. One of the issues for determination is whether the trial court was right in dismissing the appellant’s application to set aside the order of registration of the judgment when the appellant was not heard and despite the fact that a suit was pending between the parties before the Federal High Court.