SAKA ADEYEMI IBIYEYE, J.C.A (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal was prompted by the decision of Denton-West, J. of the Rivers State High Court of Justice, sitting in Port Harcourt, delivered on the 16th day of June, 1998, in Suit No. PHC/194/78.
The case which culminated in the decision appealed from had a chequered history having suffered series of transfers from one Judge to another coupled with several adjournments as well as change of learned Counsel from its initiation in 1978, until finally determined in the trial court on the 16th of June, 1998, making a total litigation period of about two decades.
The parties in this case are made up of the plaintiffs and two sets of defendants. The parties filed and exchanged their respective pleadings. The plaintiffs who are now the respondents at paragraph 10 of their joint Statement of Claim sought the reliefs reflected in the Writ of Summons.
The reliefs which are jointly and severally against the two sets of defendants are as…