MRS. E. GEORGEWILL (SUING BY HER ATTORNEY, KARIBI GEORGEWILL) V. MR. ALLOYSUIS OKWARA (SUBSTITUTED BY MR. TITUS OKWARA) MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR RIVERS STATE

ADAH JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This appeal is against the judgment of the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, in Port Harcourt Judicial Division, delivered on 9 October 1997 [coram: Odili J. (as he then was)].

The facts are that in the year 1959, the government of the then Eastern Nigeria, granted a lease of the property known as Plot 10,

Block 217, Wobo Layout, Port Harcourt, also municipally known as No. 54, Nkoro (Nsukka) Street, Diobu, Port Harcourt to Mrs. Agnes

Onyewuchi, who donated a power of attorney to the 1st respondent. The lease was said to be for seven years. By that term, the lease was scheduled to expire in 1965.

During civil war in 1967, the 1st respondent went out of Port Harcourt for safety. In 1982, the Rivers State Government sold the land to the plaintiff (now appellant) who paid a token deposit of N5,000 (five thousand naira) and later perfected the conditions of sale. There was therefore a clash between the plaintiff now appellant and the …