Facts:

The Appellant as Plaintiff sued the Respondent at the High Court of Justice, Awka for damages for trespass and an order for injunction restraining the Respondent from entering or remaining on the land in issue. At the trial Court, the title of the Appellant to the land in dispute became an issue, and so was the identity of the land in dispute. To establish his title to the land in dispute, Appellant claimed that he purchased the plot of land in 1954 from the Awka Community. The Appellant’s pleading and evidence showed that in 1944, individual owners of pieces of land from the 19 villages of a section of Awka known collectively as Ezinato whose names were never given nor their identities established surrendered their individual holdings to the said Ezinato section which in turn donated the aggregate holdings to the Awka community, which asked for land to establish a residential layout and a market to be called Eke Odehigbo. It was from this Awka Community that the Appellant claimed he purchased the land in dispute.

The Respondent case was that he inherited the plot of land from his father, that the plot of land was his father’s inheritance of his grandfather’s land and that his father Nwaonuegbunam Molokwu then-alive did not donate the said plot of land to anyone. After hearing evidence, the trial judge found in favour of the Appellant on 24/2/92. Not satisfied with the decision of the trial Court, the Respondent approached the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal set aside the decision of the trial Court and ordered a retrial of the claim on the ground that there are yawning gaps which must be filled as a result of faulty treatment of issues in the case by the trial judge. The Appellant being dissatisfied with the decision of the Court below appealed to the Supreme Court.