IKONGBEH, JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): Can an aggrieved party appeal to this court from a decision of the Customary Court of Appeal on the ground that that court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the appeal before it because the only ground of appeal filed with the notice of appeal did not involve any question of customary law? This is one of the thornier questions with which we are concerned in this appeal. The other questions are relatively easier to answer because this court and the Supreme Court have dealt with them on a number of occasions before.
The appellant before us was one of the two plaintiffs before the trial A Imo State Customary Court sitting at Okpala. He and his co-plaintiff had claimed title to some parcels of land against the respondents herein as defendants. At the end of the trial, the trial customary court accepted the evidence proffered by the plaintiffs, particularly that of PW2, the younger brother of the 1st defendant, who made it clear that the pa…