Parties are bound by the contract they voluntarily entered into and cannot act outside the terms and conditions contained in the contract and neither of the parties to a contract can alter or read into a written agreement a term which is not embodied in it. A court must treat as sacrosanct the terms of an agreement freely entered into by the parties as parties to a contract enjoy their freedom to contract on their own terms so long as same is lawful. The terms of a contract between parties are clothed with some degree of sanctity and if any question should arise with regard to the contract, the terms in any document which constitute the contract are the invariable guide to its intrepretation. A.I.B. Ltd v. I.D.S Ltd (2012) 17 NWLR (Pt.1328) 1; Lagos State Govt. v. Toluwase (2013) 1 NWLR (Pt.1336) 555 Omega Bank (Nig) Plc v O.B.C ltd (2005) 8NWLR (Pt. 928) 547; BFI Group Corp v. B.P.E (2012) 18 NWLR (Pt.1332) 209 Dapsan v. Mangu LGC (2013) 2NWLR (Pt.1338) 203

On What constitutes a contract

A contract is an agreement between two or more parties which creates reciprocal legal obligation or obligations to do or not to do a particular thing.For a valid contract to be formed,there must be mutuality of purpose and intention.The two or more minds must meet at the same point,event or incident.They must not meet at different points,events or incidents.They must be saying the same thing at the same time

On ingredients of contract

There are five ingredients that must be present in a valid contract.They are offer,acceptance, consideration,intention to create legal relationship and capacity to contract.All these five ingredients are autonomous units in the sense that a contract cannot be formed if any of them is absent

N.B For a contract to exist in all the five ingredients must be present