Section 117 Evidence Act 2011
Section 117 Evidence Act 2011 is titled ‘Form of affidavits‘. It is under Part V (DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE) of the Act. It states as follows:
(1) Every affidavit taken in a cause or matter shall –
(a) be headed in the court and in the cause or matter;
(b) state the full name, trade or profession, residence, and nationality of the deponent; and
(c) Be in the first person, and divided into convenient paragraphs numbered consecutively.
(2) Any erasure, interlineation or alteration made before the affidavit is sworn, shall be attested by the person before whom it is taken, who shall affix his signature or initial in the margin immediately opposite to the interlineation, alteration or erasure.
(3) Where an affidavit proposed to be sworn is illegible or difficult to read, or is in the judgment of the person before whom it is taken so written as to facilitate fraudulent alteration, he may refuse to swear the deponent, and require the affidavit to be re – written in an unobjectionable manner.
(4) An affidavit when sworn shall be signed by the deponent or if he cannot write or is blind, marked by him personally with his mark in the presence of the person before whom it is taken.