AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This Appeal arose from a dispute over a plot of land "situate and lying between Plots 16 and 18 Ridge Road, GRA Onitsha", and turns on the proper interpretation and application of Section 5(2) of the Land Use Act, which provides as follows:
"Upon a grant of a statutory right of occupancy under the provisions of sub-section one of this Section, all existing rights to the use and occupation of the land which is the subject of the statutory right of occupancy shall be extinguished."
The case for the Respondent, who was Plaintiff at the Anambra State High Court, is that in 1990, the Anambra State Government allocated the land in dispute that is known as "Plot X", and which is situated between Plots 16 and 18, Ridge Road, to it; and that the said allocation was confirmed by the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy dated 27/8/1991, which is registered at the Lands Registry, in Awka.
The Appellant, as Defendant, insisted that there was…