In legal practice, most cases are appealed. This is the resultant effect of not getting a favourable verdict at the Court of First Instance.
A ground of appeal(s) is the totality of reasons why the decision complained against is considered wrong by the appellant. A ground of appeal could be of law, fact, or a mixture of both. From this, it is obvious that Ground of Appeal is a feature that occurs in appellate Courts.
It is pertinent to state that obiter dictum cannot form the basis of a ground of appeal. Where, in the course of determining a cause or matter, a Judge expresses an opinion, which does not decide the live issue in the matter, it is said to be an obiter dictum. It cannot form the basis of a ground of appeal, as an appeal only lies against decisions (ratio decidendi) of the Court. See the case of TITILAYO PLASTIC INDUSTRIES LTD & ORS v. FAGBOLA (2019) LPELR-SC.205/2004.
Furthermore, issues for determination are usually distilled from the ground of appeal. And by practice, the issues for determination cannot be more than the grounds of appeal but there can be more grounds of appeal. In SALISU v. AMUSAN (2010) LPELR-9103(CA)(Pp. 25-26, paras. G-B), the Court per FASANMI, J.C.A held that: ‘The law has condemned the practice by some counsel in formulating more issues than the grounds of appeal. The practice has always been to have less number of issues than the grounds of appeal as the purpose of issues for determination is to enable the parties narrow the issues in the grounds of appeal filed in the interest of accuracy, clarity, and brevity‘.
It is trite that any purported issue which has no ground of appeal to support it is incompetent. In the same vein, any ground of appeal from which no issue has been distilled and upon which no argument has been canvassed is deemed abandoned by an appellant and deserves to be struck out and should be struck out. See ODIFE & ANOR. v. ANIEMEKA& ORS.(1992) LPELR-SC.236/1988 and MADAM ALON IYOHO v. EPE EFFIONG ESQ (2007) 11 NWLR (Pt.1044) 31.
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