S. M. A. BELGORE, J.S.C (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The appellants were defendants at the trial Court and also the appellants at the Court of Appeal. The respondents took a writ against them claiming declaration of title to a piece of land at Itoga in the then Badagary Division of Lagos State, five hundred pounds damages for trespass to the same land and injunction restraining them, their agents or other members of Ibereko Community from continuing trespass on the land. The writ was taken out on 3rd February 1972.
The appellants, as defendants, not only denied the claim but also counter-claimed for a declaration of title to the same piece of land and sought forfeiture of the plaintiffs/respondents' customary tenancies allegedly held of them by the plaintiffs/respondents; they also claimed possession.
The land in dispute is situate on both sides of the road along Ade-Odo Badagry Road. In the North of it is the land lbereko (the defendants/appellants), to its East are Aradagun an…