JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.
The present litigation concerns the will of one Emmanuel Clement Kotei alias Emmanuel Clement Dsani Kotei (deceased). The deceased may, hereinafter, be referred to as Clement Kotei. The will in question was executed on 13 March 1969, and the testator, Clement Kotei, died at Osu on 9 May 1973.
The executors named in the will were Mr. Justice Nii Amaa Ollennu, Daniel Alfred Badu Kotei and Ebenezer Isaac Afutu Kotei. Upon the affidavit of one of the two attesting witnesses (Enoch Korley Tawiah) that the will was duly executed and attested, and on the affidavits sworn to by each of the three executors stating inter alia, that the will was the "true and original last will and testament" of the testator and that they would "faithfully administer the estate according to the terms of the will," the High Court, Accra, on 27 May 1974 granted probate in respect of the will to the said executors.
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It will be noted that the contents of the will were read to the members of the family of the testator by Mr. Sagoe-Jeffrey, the senior registrar of the High Court, Accra, before steps were taken by the executors to obtain the probate. No caveat was filed against the will. But on 24 July 1974, that is, some two months after the will had been admitted to probate, four daughters of the testator, namely, Dina, Rebecca, Eva and Agnes Kotei, filed the present application challenging the formal validity of the said will of their late father. The three executors are the respondents in the application.
In the application the applicants asked for an order revoking the grant of probate and to declare the will null and void on the ground that the will was not in fact executed by their father in the presence of the two attesting witnesses as required by law. This allegation was set out in some detail in the following paragraphs of their affidavit in support of the application:
"(5) That the said will was not executed in due form of law as the purported signature of the said deceased person in the said will was not witnessed by two witnesses as required by the law governing the due execution of wills.
(6) That Enoch Korley Tawiah whose name appears in the said will as having signed as one of the two attesting witnesses to the purported signature of the said deceased person did not in fact sign the said will as an attesting witness thereof or at all.
(7) That we are advised by counsel and verily believe the same to be true that as the purported signatu
