In Onyido v Ajemba (1991) 14 NWLR (Pt. 184) 203, 228, D-H, Uwaifo, JCA (as he then was), explained the principle further thus: “It follows, in my view, that a purchaser must be careful to know the full details about the land he is buying so as to acquire a good title by ensuring that the vendor has the necessary title to what he offers to sell. The rule is caveat emptor – let the buyer beware. It is a very old and useful rule. To quote Richards C.B. in Purvis V Royer (1821) 9 Price 488 at 518: ‘It is a general rule in equity founded on principles of honesty and the dictates of good sense, that if a person, generally speaking, offers anything for sale, the vendee, or he who becomes the purchaser, is entitled to see that the vendor has it with the qualifications, and in the way in which he, the vendee, understood that he bought it; that is, so as to afford him an assurance of having bought what he wanted, and meant to buy, or, at least, he may reject the contract.’
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