Onwu V Nka (1996)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

IGUH, J.S.C.

This is an appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, delivered on the 8th day of December, 1989, dismissing the appellants appeal in a dispute concerning land situate at Nsogwu village, Urnunze town in the Anambra State of Nigeria. The said land is more particularly delineated and shown verged red in the plaintiffs’ survey Plan No. NIS/AN 1595/82 tendered at the hearing as Exhibit B.

The plaintiffs, for themselves and as representatives of the people of Amaikpa family of Nsogwu village, Umunze, Orumba Local Government Area, Anambra State had in the Amawbia/Awka Judicial Division of the High Court of Justice, Anambra State instituted an action against the defendants, for themselves and as representatives of the people of Ndikpa family of Ugwulano village, Umunze claiming as follows:-

“(a) A declaration that the plaintiffs are entitled to the customary right of occupancy of “Uhuagba” land situate at Umunze in Orumba (formerly Aguata) Local Government Area within jurisdiction of the Honourable Court.

(b) N20,000.00 (Twenty thousand Naira) being damages for trespass upon the land in dispute.

(c) A perpetual injunction to restrain the defendants, their servants or agents from further entering or in any way interfering with the plaintiffs possession and use of the said “Uhuagba land.”

Pleadings were ordered in the suit and were duly settled, filed and exchanged with the same amended by various orders of court.

At the subsequent trial, both parties testified on their own behalf and called witnesses. The plaintiffs, in the main, relied on traditional history, numerous acts of ownership and possession over the land in dispute, arbitration under customary law and estoppel by conduct in proof of their title to the land claimed. Their case is that the land in dispute known as Uhuagba or Uhuowerre had belonged to them from time immemorial, having inherited the same from their great ancestor, Agba through successive ancestors. They pleaded various acts of possession and ownership over the land in dispute such as farming the land planting and reaping the fruits of economic trees thereon without let or hindrance from anyone and warding off trespassers therefrom.

The plaintiffs claimed that following a dispute in 1968 over the said land between themselves and the defendants relations of Ndiabo family, both parties submitted themselves to arbitration by Umunze elders called “Nzuko Obu Igba” under Umunze customary law. The proceedings of this arbitration, Exhibit C, were inconclusive and did not therefore restore peace to the parties.

Consequently, both parties in 1976 submitted themselves to a further arbitration under customary law by Chief M.N. Ugochukwu, the traditional ruler or Igwe of Umunze. This second arbitration which is Exhibit D ended in the award of the land in dispute to the plaintiffs. They stressed that the parties to this customary arbitration accepted the said decision and award in good faith and at no time impugned the same on any ground whatever.

The plaintiffs further claimed that when the case between them and the defendants relations of Ndiabo in respect of the land in dispute was submitted to arbitration under customary law as aforementioned, the defendants appeared before the arbitral body and testified that the land in dispute belonged to the people of Ndiabo but made no claims on their own behalf. They averred that it was as a result on the defendants trespass of the land in dispute in 1979, 1980 and 1981 that this action was filed.

The defendants, on the other hand, claimed that the land in dispute had also been their property from time immemorial and that they inherited the same from their grandfather Nwozoigbo. They,too,testified that as owners thereof, they exercised various acts of possession thereon such as farming the land, reaping the economic trees thereon and letting in residential and farming tenants on the land without any interruption from whatever quarter.

The defendants admitted the customary arbitrations of 1966 and 1971 but averred that these were not in respect of the land in dispute. In particular, they accused Chief M. N. Ugochukwu of bias in the 1971 arbitration decision and claimed that he was a relation of the plaintiffs.

At the conclusion of hearing, the learned trial Judge, Obiesie, J., after an exhaustive review of the evidence found for the plaintiffs on the 21st September, 1987.