This action was commenced at the Port Harcourt Judicial Division of the High Court of Rivers Slate on or about the 23rd of August 1982 when the writ of summons was issued. The Plaintiffs were then Respondents at the Court below and also the Respondents herein and shall hereinafter be referred to simply as the Respondents. The Defendants, on the other hand, were the Appellants at the Court below and also the Appellants herein. I shall hereinafter refer to them mainly as the Appellants. In the writ of summons the Respondents claimed three reliefs. In the statement of claim dated and filed on the 25th of February 1983, the Respondents claimed four reliefs. The statement of claim was however amended on the 28th of April 1988. In Paragraph 15 (fifteen) thereof the Respondents claimed against the Appellants jointly and severally the following four reliefs:

The case proceeded to trial with three witnesses for the Plaintiffs' case and eight for the defence and at the close of which learned Counsel for the parties addressed the Court. The trial Court also visited the locus in quo. By his judgment on the 2nd day of May 1988 the learned trial Judge B. Gabriel-Whyte J., (now late) allowed the claim in the following terms:

"I therefore grant to the Plaintiffs the Otelga Customary Right of Occupancy to that piece or parcel of land in dispute shown and verged Green including the area verged Pink in the Plan No. DCRS/9/85 dated 26th January 1988 which is Exhibit 'D' in these proceedings and accepted by the Court. I also grant to the Plaintiffs as against the Defendants a perpetual injunction restraining them and other members of Ibuluya family from committing further acts of trespass thereon. "

The Appellants were not satisfied with the judgment and proceeded on appeal to the Court below. By its unanimous judgment on the 24th of October 2000 the appeal was dismissed and the judgment of the trial Court affirmed.