By Carrington Omokaro, Esq
Where a statute requires that a particular thing should be done in a particular manner, and that thing is not done, that failure renders the act done “Null & void”*. Illegality only comes in when the statute also prescibes a punishment for the non compliance. *SOLANKE v. ABED (1962) 1 All NLR page 230.
For instance land use act says you cannot assign without governors consent and if you do so, transaction is null and void. If a transaction is carried out without the consent, it perhaps becomes null and void(though some authorities have said the transaction is inchoate). It is only if the land use act had also prescribed a penalty for the non compliance that the act will be regarded as illegal.
In Thirwell v. Oyewumi (1990) 4 NWLR (Pt. 144) 386 the Court of Appeal per Akanbi J.C.A as he then was held
“The law recognizes and draws a distinction between a contract declared void by statute and an illegal contract in which the parties have purported to do what the law prohibits. Certainly, the law will not lend its aid to the perpetrators of any illegality, save the certain exceptional circumstances. On the contrary, a contract declared void by statute may not be an illegal contract unless in relation thereto, there is also a penalty imposed by law. The penalty, it is said, makes it illegal.”
