POLICE INFORMANT'S REWARD: IS IT ENFORCEABLE IN NIGERIA? ( CONTINUATION)

Good afternoon, friends.
In my post of yesterday, 27th May, 2015, I made mention, in passing,  that I might address, in my subsequent post, the issue whether or not the old man's fate in law would have been the same even if he had not heard about the police reward at all before giving the information that led to the arrest of the three prison inmates that were at large.See my posts of 26th and 27th June, 2015 for a recap on the subject. I shall now a dress that question.

THE LEGAL POSITION
In my post of yesterday, 27th May,2015, I mentioned acceptance as one of the four key elements of a valid contract.Acceptance follows an offer in a contract.If a party makes an offer and the offer is not accepted by the other party, no contract can arise from that offer between the two parties.It has been upheld in a number of court cases that a person cannot execute an obligation  in response to an offer he has not accepted. Offer and acceptance between the two parties to a contract signify the meeting of the minds of the two parties on the terms and conditions of the contract.This concept of the meeting of the minds is expressed in the Latin maxim consensus ad idem.My reader will agree with me that a person cannot claim to have accepted an offer he has heard nothing about because he  cannot be said to be on the same page with the other party with regard to the contract.In other words, they cannot be said to have reached agreement on the contract.

Therefore, in our scenario of the old peasant farmer, if the old man had not heard about the reward at all, he could not be deemed as being part of the contract in law.If the police could establish this, the old man might not succeed in a legal action to recover the reward. However, considering the nature of the mode of the means the police may have broadcast the reward announcement in the circumstances being radio, one wonders how it could be established that the old man was at no time within the coverage of the radio transmission each time the announcement was being made.

Thank you for reading.

As tomorrow is a public holiday marking Democracy Day in Nigeria and transition to a new Republic in the history of Nigeria, there will not be any post from Legal Gists tomorrow. We shall meet again on Monday, 2nd June, 2015. Till then Legal Gists is wishing you happy Democracy Day in advance!