OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, JCA (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal is an offshoot of the decision of the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, holden at Uyo (hereinafter addressed as “the lower court”), coram judice: I. E. Ukana, J., in Suit No. HU/492/2008, delivered on 21st November, 2014. Before the lower court, the appellant and the respondent were the plaintiff and the defendant respectively.
The facts of the case, which transformed into the appeal, are amenable to brevity and simplicity. The land in dispute, lying and being at Adaha Ata Street in Use Offot, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, originally belonged to late Nde Akpaibo. The appellant alleged that he purchased it, under native law and custom, in 1976 for the sum of N6,000.00, from one Joseph Effiong Edem who inherited it from his late father, Nde Akpaibo, on his demise. The transaction was reduced into writing. On purchase, the appellant took possession by cultivating it and planting economic trees thereon without let or hindra…