Oseloke Benjamin Igbokwe & Ors V. Osita Ngoka Igbokwe & Anor (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

HELEN MORONKEJI OGUNWUMIJU, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal by the defendants now appellants against the judgment of the High Court of Anambra State presided over by Hon. Justice Peter N. C. Umeadi, dated the 2nd day of December 2005 giving judgment to the Plaintiffs/Respondents.

The Plaintiffs now respondents by a Writ of Summons dated the 11th day of June 1990 sued the Defendants now Appellants claiming the following reliefs:

i) A declaration that the Plaintiffs are the people exclusively entitled to the Customary Right of Occupancy in respect of a piece and parcel of land situate at Uruagu Nnewi and more particularly referred to and called AKWU OKWENU LAND. The annual value is N100.

ii) A declaration that any purported alienation of the said land or any part of it by the defendants to anybody whatsoever without the consent of the plaintiffs is null and void and without any effect whatsoever,

iii) N3,000 damages for trespass.

iv) Perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, each and everyone of them and collectively from further trespass on the said land.

Pleadings were

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duly ordered, filed and exchanged. By a 22 paragraph amended statement of claim, the Respondents pleaded that the land in dispute denoted by Plan No. VLD/AS10/90 and verged pink, tendered as Exhibit C is part of a larger area of land which belongs exclusively to the Respondents’ sub-family by inheritance and over which the respondents and their ancestors have been in exclusive ownership and possession for a long time. The whole area of land including the disputed land is verged violet in Exhibit C. Both the portion of land in dispute and the larger area are called the same name, AKWU OKWENU LAND.

The Respondents claimed to be suing in a representative capacity but excluded the 1st Defendant. The Respondents and the original 1st Defendant, now deceased, were half-brothers, having the same father, Ngoka lgbokwe. 1st Defendant was sued together with the 2nd – 5th Defendants (now Appellants).

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The Defendants i.e. 1st Defendant and Appellants in their Statement of Defence denied the claims of the Respondents. They admitted that both the land in dispute and the larger area are known as AKWU OKWENU LAND but joined issues with the Respondents on the

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