proof is on the party who asserts a fact and who will fail if that fact failed to attain the standard of proof that would persuade the court to believe the statement of the claim. Furthermore even as in this case where the defendants rested their respective positions on the evidence of the plaintiffs. the plaintiff is required to still prove his claim. It must be mentioned that a party is free to choose whether to adduce evidence in support of his pleadings or not and the court has no power to interfere with the exercise of that right. See the Nigerian case of Mobil oil (Nig) ltd v. FBIR (1887) 3 SC I. which this Court can look at under Article 38(1) of the Statute of International Court of Justice. 35. It must be stated that where the 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants rested their cases on the plaintiffs evidence. The onus of proof was still the on the plaintiff to prove the case. The argument by the defendants was that by the presentation of the plaintiff's claim and his evidence, the Plaintiffs had failed to discharge the onus of proof and particularly whether the plaintiff has attained this onus of proof by the standard required in International law. 36. The practice in the National Court is that the burden of proof is on the Plaintiffs to prove his claim and this onus does not lie with the Plaintiff throughout as same may shift to the defendant. In William A. Parker (USA) V. United Mexican States, {1928) 4 UNRIAA 39, it was observed that the Tribunal in dealing with the presentation of pleadings and evidence should be governed by municipal law, as international tribunal has no clear rules of evidence. 37. In view of the flexibility of this procedure the international courts have developed their systems of procedural evidence that would ensure that justice is done to parties in all manner of cases before them. This has been applied in several cases where an international tribunal considered the method of burden of proof and burden of persuasion on the evidence was equated to the procedure that obtains in the National Courts. However, it was stated that there is a slight difference but that the combined effect is higher in standard than preponderance of evidence which is the standard in the National Court in civil cases. How does it work, this. this burden of persuasion? The 15