The case for the Plaintiffs, briefly, is that the land in dispute is owned and possessed by their family and, before them, their forebears from time immemorial As owners thereof, they made maximum use of the same by planting and reaping economic trees and by cultivating and building houses thereon. They also put tenants including family members of the Defendants on the land. They described the Defendants as the descendants of a war captive, Nduka, who lived with Onewe and was protected by the said Onewe who was a member of the Plaintiffs family. It was to Nduka that the Plaintiffs ancestor, Onewe, granted the land verged yellow in Exhibit A. The Plaintiffs further pleaded that following some acts of trespass. They were obliged to sue the Defendants at the Achi Native Court in 1925 and obtained judgment. This is suit No. 611/25, Exhibit C. However, by the intervention of one Rev. S Okolo, DW7, the plaintiffs allowed the Defendants to continue with their occupation of the land granted to their ancestor by Onewe. The Defendants, after the Nigerian civil war commenced various acts hence this action. Essentially the Plaintiffs relied on traditional evidence, the 1925 Achi Native Court judgment, Exhibit C, numerous acts of ownership and possession on the land and possession of adjacent or connected land in proof of their title to the land in dispute.

The Defendants denied the Plaintiffs claim and asserted their ownership and possession of the land in dispute, also, from time immemorial. They relied inter alia on traditional evidence, numerous and positive acts of possession and ownership in and over the land in dispute from time beyond human memory and the 1940 settlement between the parties in respect of their Nkpo Uno and Ugba Nduka pieces of land shown in their plan, Exhibit D.

At the conclusion of hearing, the learned trial Judge, Nwazota, J as he then was, after a most meticulous and exhaustive review of all the evidence on the 21st day of July, 1986 dismissed the Plaintiffs claims in their entirety.

Aggrieved, the Plaintiffs/Appellants appealed to the Court of Appeal and the Defendants/Respondents also cross-appealed. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal

Aggrieved, the Plaintiffs/Appellants appealed to the Supreme Court. The Respondents also cross-appealed against part of the decision of the Court of Appeal.