NGWUTA JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The plaintiffs instituted this action (suit No. A/1/89) in the High Court of the then Bendel State of Nigeria, holden at Asaba. In the concluding paragraph of their 14 paragraph amended statement of claim, the plaintiffs claimed against thedefendants jointly and severally the following reliefs: “(i) A declaration of title or declaration of statutory right of occupancy or customary right of occupancy over the parcel of land known as “Okpuzu land” situate at Ogbe-Orji, Illah within the jurisdiction ofthis honourable court, which land has been accurately described and delineated green in survey plan No. MES/LD/70/91 dated 16th December, 1971 filed with further amended statement of claim.
N50,000.00 (fifty thousand naira)special and general damages for trespass in that the defendants by themselves, their servants and agents acting in concert entered the plaintiffs’ said parcel of land in January 1988 and in 1989 and farmed there without the cons…