MR. LAWRENCE OZU (SUBSTITUTED BY MR. AYIBANOAH LAWRENCE OZU) & MR. SAMUEL OKECHUKWU AGONSI V. MR. SAMSON ABIDI

OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal probes into the rightness of the decision of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division (hereunder addressed as "the lower court”), coram judice, M. L. Tsamiya, Ejembi Eko, and M. Fasanmi, JJCA, in Appeal No. CA/PH/184/2012, delivered on the 6th December, 2013. In its decision, the lower court struck out the notice of appeal filed against the judgment of the High Court of Rivers State (the trial court) in Suit No. PHE/429/1992, delivered on the 7th of March, 2012, wherein D. W. Okocha, J., granted the respondent's claim against the appellants.

The resume of the material facts of the case, which transfigured into the appeal, is disobedient to complexity. The respondent claimed ownership of the property known as No. 39 Lumumba Street, Mile 3, Diobu, Port Harcourt, by virtue of a sale agreement between him and the Rivers State Housing and Property Development Authority (RSHPDA) on the 9th of June, 1989. The res…