OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, JCA (Delivering the Leading Judgement): This appeal queries the correctness of the decision of the High Court of Cross River State, holden at Ogoja (hereinafter referred to as “the lower court”), coram judice: Bassey E. Ikpeme, J., in Suit No. HJ/10/2012, delivered on 15th October, 2014. Before the lower court, the appellants and the respondents were the defendants and the claimants respectively.
The facts of the case, which transformed into the appeal, are amenable to brevity and simplicity. The respondents claimed ownership, from time immemorial, of the piece of land lying, being and situate behind the Ministry of Works Ogoja from Aya River up to the boundary with Ugaga in Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State. They exercised acts of ownership and possession thereon without let or hindrance. Sometime in 2011 and 2012, the appellants unlawfully entered the said land by surveying it and leasing out same to people which deprived the respondents of rev…