The following are the background facts as made out on behalf of the parties.

For the respondents they are that the land in dispute is part of the land founded by Ovie their ancestor which land subsequently devolved on them. Ovie, they recounted, was the grandson of Azagba, who with his wife Owhe, founded Owhe Clan. Tracing their genealogy, they showed how Ovie had a daughter called Itete and two sons - Ejeasa and Otuata. Itete, it was maintained, begat Atamaro who in turn begat Esekwe and other children. Esekwe, it was then stated, begat Ukpakara, Okoro, Ugboka, Agbarugo, Oguboru and other children. Ukparaka begat the 1st respondent, Okoro; Okoro begat late Johnny the 2nd and 3rd respondents. Ovie in his lifetime fanned on the land before he gave it to his daughter Itete and her descendants to farm on. Ovie, Itete and her descendants, it is said, exercised maximum acts of ownership over the land in dispute. They also stated that they collected palm nuts, fished and hunted games on the land as well as owning rubber plantations and houses built by their tenants thereon.

The respondents demonstrated how sometime in 1961 the 2nd appellant and Emonido started to farm on the land, in consequence of which, the 1st respondent sued them to Oleh Customary Court and got judgment; the case being Suit No. IOC/55/61 vide Exhibit B. That in 1975, when dispute erupted over the land, the appellants summoned the respondents before the Odion Ologbo asserting Ownership of the land and that after probing into the dispute, the Council gave judgment in respondents' favour. Subsequently, the appellants again trespassed on the land; whereupon the respondents commenced the action giving rise to the case herein.

The appellants for their part denied the respondents' claim; they in addition denied that Ovie was a descendant of Azagba and Owhe and any knowledge of the Oleh Customary Court case of 1961 vide Suit No. IOC/55/61 as well as the customary arbitration before the Odion in Council in 1975. In their claim to ownership of the land in dispute, they too relied on traditional evidence, acts of ownership and long possession. Their case is that the land in dispute called Otor-Uto was founded by Akpughe their ancestor from whom it devolved on them through Eweke. Their genealogy is to the effect that Azagba and his wife who founded Owhe begat Ogbu, Ovo and Uthata. Ovo begat Akpughe who founded Otor-Uto in Erawha land. Akpughe begat Edhegbe, Eweke and Ikperi. After the death of Akpughe, his three children shared Oto-Uto land among themselves. Eweke begat Ariakpo, Eka, Ojokor and Erhieha and after the death of Eweke, his four children shared the land among themselves. In the course of time they maintained, Odjokor defaulted in joining to clear the path to Orise Owhe juju and his own portion of the land was seized and pledged to Esekwe, the ancestor of the respondents for 80k (equivalent of twenty cowries). They asserted that when the land was in possession of the respondents as a result of the pledge they (respondents) sued the 2nd appellant in respect of the house he built on it and that the other appellants were not a party to the action. The appellants then asserted that sometime in 1975 they summoned the respondents before D.W. 1 (George Iduku Orovwighose) in his house in order to redeem the land pledged to Esekwe their ancestor and after deliberation; the appellants redeemed the land with the sum of N200 which they paid to the respondents.

Aggrieved by the decision of the Court of Appeal (hereinafter referred to shortly as the court below) the appellants have further appealed to this Court upon five grounds contained in their notice of appeal.