OGBONNAYA EZEOKE AGBUAGWU NGWOKE ISAAC CHUKWU DOMINIC AJALI OKORO CHUKWU PATRICK AROR ABARA C. UDE ROBERT OKEJI JOHNSON NGWU CHRISTOPHER AGAEZE OKORO NJOKU CHUKWU EZEOKE (FOR THEMSELVES AND AS REPRESENTATIVES OF OBUO COMMUNITY, IYIOJI, AKAEZE OHAOZARA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA) V. DIMGBA IGWE S. O. CHUKWU CHIEF UKA EGBE OKORIE NDUKWE (FOR THEMSELVES AND AS REPRESENTATIVES OF OKAI ITEM COMMUNITY, BENDE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)

PATS-ACHOLONU, JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): Cases that came up in the Courts in this country are as hydra-headed and melodramatic and sometimes as complex as Nigeria itself. In this case, the appellants stated that there were two parallel suits instituted both in Umuahia High Court to wit, HU/105/87 and also in Afikpo High Court HAF/1/87. The subject matter of the disputed lands in both High Courts was called Achora Ukwu by the appellants, the respondents call them Akpokoro. However, the suit in Afikpo was first heard and dismissed on 5/12/88. The defendants appealed to this court. In January, 1990, the defendants/appellants whereof applied to the court at Umuahia to have the parallel case pending there to be transferred to Afikpo or in the alternative, to strike out the case or still adjourn same sine die until the conclusion of the case in the Court of Appeal. It was transferred and was renumbered HAF/15/90. The Court at Afikpo was still being presided over by the same Judg…