A party in a lawsuit must be notified that he or she has been summoned to the court and the process whereby the party is made aware of the matter is known as service.
When a party is not put on notice that he has been summoned to the court so that he can come to defend himself from accusations made against him, the party is denied his fundamental right to a fair hearing as constitutionally provided for in S. 36 of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria thereby denying the party his constitutional provided fundamental human rights.
Parties must as a matter of law and practice provided in the rules of court ensure that the opposing party does not only receive the court process but acknowledges the receipt of the service of process on him thereby satisfying that he has been properly served.
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When parties to the suit have not been properly served, it robs the court of its jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
The rules of procedures of various courts in Nigeria prescribe modes of service of court processes on a defendant/ respondent but the general rule is that parties to a suit must be served personally, ie Personal service which is to be effected by handing a copy of the summons to the defendant in person, but if personal service cannot be effected, substituted service can be effected on the defendant by pasting the process at the doorstep of the respondent or pasting it at his place of work or by pasting the summons in a conspicuous location that it will be presumed that the party will see it or by effecting the service on a third party who has a close relationship with the defendant or by electronically sending the process through the defendant’s email, WhatsApp or any other means.
Service of process of a civil suit originating from the federal high court is provided for by Order 6 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019.
According to Order 6 rule 2 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rule, 2019, originating processes are to be personally served on the Defendants. However, Rule 5 thereof provides that where personal service cannot be effected, substituted service of such Originating Processes shall be effected on the Defendant.
When a recipient of a process is a person who is in prison custody, the prisoner is to be served by sending the process to the superintendent or the head of the prison where the prisoner is detained.
When the person who is to be served is a person of unsound mind or mentally unstable person, the process is to be served on the superintendent or head of the asylum where the lunatic is kept.
When a person who is to be served the process is an infant or underaged, the process is served on the infant’s parents, his guardian, or the person on call for the infant.
Service of the originating process is carried out by the court Sheriff or Bailiff of the court but in some special circumstances, the judge may appoint a person to serve the court process and such person is called a process server.