On 12/11/92, the Plaintiff instituted an action against the Defendants jointly and severally in the Port-Harcourt Judicial Division of the High Court of Rivers State.

The Defendants, in particular, relied on the facts pleaded by them in their Statement of Defence and/or deposed to in the affidavit in support of their application to the effect that the land in dispute was purchased by the 1st Defendant from the 3rd Defendant in 1967 at the price of £370.00, that the land was later conveyed to the said 1st Defendant by a Deed of Conveyance dated the 17th day of March, 1967 and that the Conveyance was subsequently registered at the Lands Registry in the office at Enugu on the 8th June, 1967 as No. 18 at page 18 in Volume 462. They stated that the land, at the end of the civil war, was declared as Abandoned Property but that the Rivers State Government by an Extra-Ordinary gazette No. 22 of the 6th October, 1987 released the property to the 1st Defendant. The Defendants claimed that ownership and possession of the land in dispute were on the 1st Defendant and contended that the cause of action in the dispute arose in 1967 when the land was sold to the 1st Defendant by the 3rd Defendant.

The Plaintiff filed no counter-affidavit to controvert the depositions in the affidavit of the Defendants in support of their application but entirely relied, as already stated, on the averments in his writ of summons and Statement of Claim.

In his Statement of Claim, the Plaintiff averred that he purchased the land in dispute from the owners thereof on the 30th December, 1964 and that he immediately went into possession and occupation thereof. In his Statement of Claim, the Plaintiff averred that he purchased the land in dispute from the owners thereof on 30/12/64 and that he immediately went into possession and occupation thereof.

The learned trial Judge, Okor, J., observed that the cause of action arose in 1967 and not 1992 thereby concluding that the Plaintiff's action was statute-barred by virtue of the provisions of Section 1 of Limitation Law No.7 of Rivers State, 1988.

Dissatisfied, the Plaintiff/Appellant lodged an appeal at the Court of Appeal which dismissed the appeal holding that the Plaintiff's action was statute-barred.

The Plaintiff/Appellant further appealed to the Supreme Court.