IKERUMBA MADUMERE V. EMMANUEL ONUOHA & ORS

IKONGBEH, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal by the plaintiff before the Imo State High Court (I.C.K. Pats-Acholonu, J., as he then was), sitting at Etiti. What gave rise to this suit before that Court was the demolition by the 1st and 2nd respondents herein of a structure the appellant had erected on a piece of land. The respondents had done the act complained of in their capacity as chairman and secretary respectively of the Obowo Local Government, created out of Etiti Local Government in 1981 by the Imo State Government.

Pleadings were ordered, filed, exchanged, and amended. Evidence was however, not taken, the plaintiff having decided to submit some issues for the Court's consideration and decision based on the facts in the pleadings on which there was no dispute. These facts were as follows: In 1981 the Imo State Government established the Obowo Local Government by carving same out of the existing Etiti Local Government. The 1st respondent was appointed …