WILLIAM UDE AND OTHERS V. JOSIAH AGU AND OTHERS

BRETT, F.J

This case raises two short but important questions of interpretation. The appellants, who were plaintiffs in the Court below, brought an action in the High Court of the Eastern Region on behalf of themselves and the entire people of Ngwo claiming against the defendants on behalf of themselves and the people of Ifueke and Okwe-Uwani quarters of Ngwo a declaration that a certain piece of land was the communal property of the entire people of Ngwo and an injunction to restrain the defendants from exercising exclusive rights of ownership over the land.

The defendants pleaded an estoppel by record arising from the decision of the Ukana/Ngwo Native Court in Suit No. 89/56. Counsel for the plaintiffs conceded that if the judgment of the Native Court was still subsisting the plea of res judicata must succeed and the question whether it was subsisting was by agreement, argued as a preliminary point before Sir John Ainley, C.J., and was decided in favour of the defendants. The present …