Facts:

The parties filed terms of settlement on April 30, 2001, before the High Court of Lagos State, pursuant to which a consent judgment was entered by the trial court. In the said terms of settlement, the appellants as defendants, who were indebted to the respondent agreed to defray their indebtedness vide two instalments clearly spelt out. They paid the first instalment but failed to fulfill the second. Eleven months after the expiration of the period spelt out in the consent judgment, the appellants approached the trial court with an application wherein they sought an order of court varying the judgment rendered about twenty months before the application. The trial court declined jurisdiction to hear the application on the grounds that it had become functus officio and had no power to direct time for payment as prayed since the judgment entered was a consent judgment, duly agreed by the parties.
Being dissatisfied with the ruling of the trial court, the appellants appealed to the Court of Appeal, Lagos Judicial Division. The lower court, by its judgment, dismissed the appeal, consequently affirming the ruling of the trial court.
Further dissatisfied by the judgment of the lower court, the appellants appealed to the Supreme Court.