OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal interrogates the rightness of the decision of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division (hereunder addressed as “the lower court”), coram judice: E. Eko, T. N. Orji-Abadua and S. J. Adah, JJCA, in Appeal No. CA/PH/658/2013, delivered on the 30th January, 2015. In its decision, the lower court affirmed the judgment of the High Court of Rivers State (the trial court), in Suit No. DHC/4/2011, delivered on the 1st July, 2013, wherein S. O. Benson, J. dismissed the appellant’s preliminary objection.
The resume of the material facts of the case, which transformed into this appeal, are not difficult to comprehend. On the 9th February, 2011, the respondents (in a representative capacity) beseeched the trial court, via a writ of summons and statement of claim, wherein they tabled against the appellant (in a representative capacity), the following reliefs:
A declaration that the claimants are the Customary Overlords o…