Similarly, on the 29th October, 2015 the Plaintiff through its Solicitor, wrote to the Defendants making a proposal for the appointment of an Arbitrator, a letter the Defendants failed to reply. Accordingly, all efforts by the Plaintiff to recover the outstanding sum of N20, 698, 920. 00 (Twenty million, six hundred and ninety eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty naira only, from the Defendants has proved abortive, hence the commencement of this suit against the Defendants. From the records before the Court, the originating application was dated the 8th of December, 2015 and filed on the same day. The Defendants were served with the originating application and other processes in this suit on the 10th of December, 2015. By the Rules of this Court, the Defendants had one month to file a defence after the service of the originating application, but failed to do so after the expiration of the period. The Plaintiff then filed an application for judgment by default and also an application to call oral evidence. The Defendants, acting through the 1st Defendant, wrote a letter dated 22 /01/2016 to the President of this Court, purporting to advance reasons why the Defendants did not file their statement of defence. There was no application for leave of Court to file their statement of defence out of time. 11