KUROBO SAMESI V. MICAH IGBE & ORS

MUSA DATTIJO MUHAMMAD, (OFR) J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal by the Plaintiffs against the judgment of the Rivers State High Court dated 30th December 1994 dismissing in its entirety the claim against the Defendants. As indorsed on the writ dated 8th December and issued on 29th December 1973 and paragraph 12 of the plaintiffs' amended statement of claim, the claim against the Defendants is for declaration of title, damages for trespass and injunction over the land in dispute. Let me briefly state the facts of the case that gave birth to the appeal.

The plaintiffs claim is over the parcel of land they call Iginama- Toru-Ugbo, a name derived from the claimants' principal juju, Iginamu, on the land. Ossiama River, otherwise called Iginamatoru, runs through the land in dispute as well as plaintiffs' villages of Ondewari and Okpotuwari. The two villages, plaintiffs assert, were founded by Okpotu and Onde. It is plaintiffs' case that these two had allowed Defenda…