ELDER NYECHE NWAGWU ELDER TITUS NWAGWU (FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE NWAGWU FAMILY OF RUMUADAOLU IN OBIO/AKPOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA) V. MR. SHEDRACK AGUMA CHIEF FRIDAYAGUMA (FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE NWAGWU FAMILY OF RUMUADAOLU IN OBIO/AKPOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)

GARBA JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The High Court of Rivers State, Port Harcourt had in a judgment delivered on 9 March 2007 in the appellants’ suit No. PHC/377/1992, dismissed their claims for declaration that they are the holders of the statutory right of occupancy over a piece of land in Rumuadaolu on Obio/Apkor Local Government Area of Rivers State, damages and injunction, against the respondents. The appellants had relied on traditional history evidence that their forefather, one Adaolu deforested the land in dispute and it devolved to them through inheritance. That they have been in occupation/possession of not only the land they claimed, but adjacent pieces of land exercising acts of ownership. On their part, the respondents’ case was that the land in dispute was an abandoned one by Ochiri and was not owned by the parties originally. They also relied on evidence of traditional history for their case, which the High Court found to be more plausible and decided the dispu…