IRIKEFE, J.S.C. (Delivering The Leading Judgment): The proceedings giving rise to this appeal were commenced by the respondents before this court in the then ASABA-OGWASHI-UKU Judicial Division of the HIGH COURT OF MID-WESTERN STATE (NOW BENDEL) of Nigeria. The claim read as follows:
"(a) A declaration that all that piece and parcel of land lying and situate in OBOMKPA, ASABA DIVISION, which land is verged in pink on PLAN No. LSU 145 filed by the plaintiffs in this case is the property of the plaintiffs' people of OBOMKPA.
(b) The sum of 310,000 (ten thousand pounds) being general and special damages for trespass in that the defendants, their servants and or agents, on or about the 23rd December, 1970 broke into the land, cleared a portion of it and deposited a juju pot thereon, thereby desecrating plaintiffs'91 ancestral shrine, which the plaintiffs had to reactivate at great expense (then follows particulars of special damages).
(c) An injunction restraining the defendants their ser…