BOLOUKUROMO M. UGO, JCA (DELIVERING THE LEADING JUDGMENT): The main and perhaps sole issue in the case that led to this appeal is whether the Late Louis Obiajulu Onochie (a.k.a. L. O. Onochie), father of the appellants and 4th and 5th respondents but brother of the 1st to 3rd respondents, who died on 25/08/2004 distributed his estate in his lifetime.
The respondents, especially 4th and 5th respondents, claim he did and particularly gave his No 403 Nnebisi Road, Asaba, property to the 4th respondent by a deed of gift and reaffirmed the said gift by informing the entire Onochie family of Asaba in a family meeting and further documented same by a one-page document dated 14th April 2004, approximately four months to his death in August 2004 - in Exhibit D2. The appellants, all of the same but different mother from the 4th and 5th respondents, deny there was any such distribution of property by their late father. They contend Exhibit D2 was not their fathers document but forged and fraudule…