UKAEZIRIGBO OKIRI V. MATHIAS IFEAGHA & ANOTHER

OLAGUNJU, JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The appellant, as the plaintiff, sued the two respondents at the Mgbidi Judicial Division of the Imo State High Court, seeking in paragraph 8 of his statement of claim the following reliefs: “(i) That the plaintiff is entitled to the customary right of occupancy over thatpiece and parcel of Chukwu landsituateatUmuhu Omuma and delineated in Plan No VEN/D116/90 dated 18th July, 1990. (ii) An order that the defendants receive from the plaintiff the pledge money (Ugba-na-ato) whose present exchange value is N60.” Pleading were exchanged by the parties, on which issues were joined.

The plaintiff’s case is summed up in paragraph 5 of his statement of claim, which reads:

“Okiri pleaded a portion of the land now in dispute and verged pink to defendants’ ancestors Iheagha and Ekwesaranna (two brothers) for a legal tender of the period ‘Ugba-na-ato’ (Three hundred cowries) over 80 years ago. It is the custom of Omuma Community to which the plaintiff…