OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal queries the rightness of the decision of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division (hereinafter addressed as "the lower court), Coram judice: T. N. Orji-Abadua, S. J. Adah and B. G. Sanga, JJCA, in Appeal No. CA/PH/553/2012, delivered on the 30th June, 2015. In its judgment, the lower court set aside the decision of the High Court of Rivers State (the trial court) in Suit No. PHC/371/1986, delivered on the 2nd April, 2012, wherein B. A Georgewill, J. (now JCA) granted the appellant's claims partly.
The précis of the material facts of the case, which transformed into the appeal, are disobedient to complexity. The property in dispute was a state land known as plot 134 Oromineke Layout, but municipally designated as Nos 6 and 6A Wogu Street, D/Line, Port Harcourt. On the 4th September, 1962, the Rivers State Government granted a building lease to one Mr. Arua Kalu for a period of 40 years commencing from the 1st …