DURU
V.
F.R.N.

DATTIJO MUHAMMAD JSC (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This interlocutory appeal emanates from the decision of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, hereinafter referred to as the court below, striking out the appellant’s appeal for incompetence. The decision being appealed against is dated 6 June 2005. The brief facts of the case on which the appeal predicates are hereunder supplied. The appellant was tried and convicted in absentia on two counts at the Lagos Zone of the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts and Financial Malpractices) Tribunal. He was sentenced to two and three years imprisonment respectively on the two counts. The A terms are to run concurrently. Dissatisfied with the decision, the appellant sought leave to appeal against the tribunal’s 23 January 2003 decision and filed his notice of appeal following the time extended by the court below for him to do so. Parties subsequently filed and exchanged their briefs of argument and the appeal was fixed for hearing. On the h…