By his writ of summons in Suit No. HEK/17/86 dated 26/5/86 and filed on 3/6/86 at the Cross River State High Court sitting the at Eket, the respondent claimed jointly and severally against the appellant as defendants (a son and mother) the following reliefs:

Pleadings were ordered, duly filed and exchanged and thereafter parties called witnesses in proof of their respective cases.

The respondent’s case is that in 1978, he purchased from one Emmanuel Ebong of Etebi Idung village, Eket a piece or parcel of land situates thereat and thereafter caused same to be surveyed and deposited trips of white sand thereon preparatory to moulding blocks. In 1983, he applied for and was granted a certificate of occupancy No. Ek/22/183 dated 28/4/83 - Exhibit B and ever since he has been paying annual rents on demand by the Chief Lands Officer. Early in 1985, the appellants trespassed on the said land by clearing same. On noticing this trespassory act, the respondent by his counsel wrote a letter dated 5/3/85 Exhibit J warning the appellants to desist from their trespass but in defiance of the letter, the appellants subsequently erected a mud-and-wattle building on the said land and more recently have converted same into permanent building hence the action leading to the instant appeal.

In their defence, the appellants denied the respondent’s claim. They alleged that the land in dispute is their family property of Nung Utu Ata Mbuk of Etebi Idung Akpaisang Eket. They narrated that in 1970, Emmanuel Ebong, the alleged respondent’s vendor and the 1st appellant’s half brother applied to their family head, Chief Daniel Mbuk for land to build a dwelling house. At a meeting of the principal members of the family convened by the said family head, the land in dispute was allotted or apportioned to the said Emmanuel Ebong after he had performed the customary rite of presenting ‘Iyak Ukie Ndon’ - presentation of fists to the members of the family. Thereafter, the said Emmanuel Ebong entered into possession of the land by building thereon a mud-and - wattle house where he lived until 1975 when he complained to the family that he was haunted by evil spirits on the land and was vacating the land to settle in Ikot Ebok village of his mother. He eventually did so.

Thereafter and at the request of the 1st appellant, the said head of the family in consultation with other members of the family including Emmanuel Ebong granted the land to him after performing the ‘Iyak Utie Ndon’ custom. Thereupon the 1st appellant built a mud-wattle house on the land, the earlier one built by Emmanuel Ebong having collapsed. The Eket Area Planning Authority in 1985 granted the 1st appellant a permit to construct a permanent building on the land. It is the appellants’ case that if a Certificate of Occupancy was issued to the respondent in respect of the said land as alleged, the same is null and void and of no effect. In a counter-claim subjoined to the statement of defence, the 1st appellant counter-claimed for a declaration that the purported Certificate of Occupancy obtained by the respondent in respect of the land in dispute is null and void.

After due trial, the judge learned trial judge Udofia J. dismissed the appellant’s counter-claim and entered judgment for the respondent holding that his Certificate of Occupancy Exhibit B was valid and that he was entitled to N 15,000.00 general damages and an injunction to restrain further acts of trespass.

It is against that judgment that the appellants have brought the instant appeal