There is a house situate in Block 44, plot 18 at Onitsha commonly known as No. 12 Anyaegbunam Street, Fegge, Onitsha. The plot of land on which this house was built was the subject of a grant to the plaintiff/appellant from government for a period of 40 years commencing from 1st January 1961. It was the appellant who erected the building on the plot of land. It contains ten rooms, four of which he occupied himself and the rest he let out to rent-paying tenants. The army took over the occupation of the house paying rents to the plaintiff. In 1973 the plaintiff gave a power of attorney (exhibit 5) to one J.U. Okeke, by reason of the fact, as stated by him, that he was travelling overseas, for Mr. Okeke to administer, manage, superintend the management, of the building with power to sub-let, mortgage, as¬sign to himself or to any other person or persons the plot and the building. The power of attorney was stated to be given in consideration of an agreement for sale, in order to facilitate the carrying out of the contract which was said to be irrevoc¬able. The plaintiff handed to the said Mr. Okeke the original deed of lease.

Later on 5th October 1974 a receipt (exhibit 4) was issued by Mr. Okeke to the plaintiff acknowledging payment by the plaintiff to Mr. Okeke of a sum of N8,500.00 stated there to be:

"consideration in respect of the revocation of the power of attorney granted to him in respect of No. 12 Anyaegbunam Street, Fegge, Onitsha."

On the same day, the said J.U. Okeke in turn gave to the plaintiff/appellant an irrevocable power of attorney, clause 5 of which stated that:

"this power of attorney is necessary and given because an agreement for the sale of the plot as expressed in paragraph 11 of the power of attorney dated the 4th day of August 1973 fell through and was abandoned by mutual consent by myself and Chief Ifezue."

This instrument was not registered until 7th June 1977.

The appellant did not assign the plot to J.U. Okeke. Equally, J.U. Okeke did not at any time exercise the power granted to him under the original power of at¬torney which the appellant gave to him, to assign the property to himself or to any other person. But, he did exercise the power of mortgage contained in the instrument by mortgaging {exhibit 10} the property to a bank - a mortgage in which he described the property to be his own - as security for a loan. While the mortgage was still subsisting, Okeke became a judgment debtor to the firm of C.F.A.O. in Suit 0/174/73. He applied to court by motion for instalmental payment of the Judgment debt in the said suit 0/174/73, and in his affidavit in support named the house as his property. His creditors later applied for and obtained the leave of court to levy execution against the house as property of J.U. Okeke. The court gave leave for the property to be attached and a subsequent order of court gave leave for the property to be sold.

In April 1975 the property was sold by order of court by the Deputy Sheriff, Onitsha, to the 1st defendant (Livinus Mbadugha) for a sum of N8,360.00. There-after, at the request of the Registrar of the court, Mbadugha paid an additional sum of N444-73 claimed by the bank to write off their mortgage transaction with Okeke on the property. The Registrar then issued a certificate of purchase (exhibit 7} dated 3rd May 1975 to Mr. Mbadugha. The Ministry of Works and Housing approved in principle the transfer of the property to Mr. Mbadugha (exhibit 8).

"The transfer in fact had not actually taken place. It is to be noted that the ap-pellant took no part in the enforcement proceedings in the suit 0/174/73 nor did he interplead when the property was attached. There was also no direct evidence that he knew of the case, 0/174/73, or of the attachment of the property until the 2nd day of May 1977 when he filed in court an affidavit (exhibit 6) in which he stated that he had just learnt of the proceedings in 0/174/73 and that the attached and sold property belonged to him and not to Mr. J. U. Okeke. On 2nd May 1977 he filed this suit in the Onitsha High Court and Judgment was given for the plaintiff. The 1st defendant appealed.

The Court of Appeal concluded the hearing of counsel's addresses on 23rd March, 1981 and reserved judgment. The judgment was not delivered until the 23rd of November, 1981 where the decision of the High Court was set aside, and the plaintiff was non-suited.

Plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court