AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The Appellant and 1st Respondent are brothers, and the action that culminated in this appeal relates to the paternity of the Appellant. Their mother, late Madam Onaiwu Idahosa, was the 2nd and 3rd Respondents' sister, and she was married to late pa Egharevba Idahosa until his death on the 20th of December, 1977. As the eldest surviving son, the Appellant complied with all the Bini customs in burying their father, and he was the one who inherited the Igiogbe, that is the house in which the late Pa Idahosa lived and was buried, which according to Bini custom, is inherited by the eldest surviving son of the deceased . Madam Onaiwu Idahosa lived with the Appellant until her death on the 2nd of August 1997.
After the traditional wake keeping on the 20th of August, 1997, the Appellant and his older sister took a goat to their mother's family to ask permission to perform final burial rites of their mother. But the family refused to…