was judicially upheld by the Supreme Court in Obasohan v. Omorodion [2001] 13 NWLR (Pt. 729) 206. In that case, the appellant was the defendant in an action brought against him in the Bendel State High Court, Benin Judicial Division, in respect of premises situate at 41 Akpakpava Street Benin City. It was common ground that the respective fathers of the parties were three brothers of the full blood who are now all dead. That the property in question was rightly acquired by their several fathers in 1919 by a grant from one Obazuaye on his marriage to one Madam Obazuaye, a sister of the full blood of their fathers. They later contributed money and built the premises, on the completion of which they moved in and settled there. The respondent claimed that his father, one of the three brothers, lived in a part of the house until his death in 1957 whereon on his performance of the funeral ceremony in the house in 1959 in accordance with Benin Native Law and Custom, he, as his father‟s eldest son, inherited the portion occupied by his father and was in possession until the appellant entered that portion and converted it into rooms and shops which he let out to tenants. Sometime in July 1980, the matter was reported to the Oba of Benin who ruled that the house belonged to the three deceased brothers. The appellant did not heed the ruling, whereon the 1st respondent instituted a legal action against him. The 2nd respondent on his part claimed that his father, of whom he was the eldest surviving son, lived in the house as co-owner from 1921 until his death in 1945. Forty years later, in 1985, he too performed the funeral ceremonies that qualified him to inherit his father‟s portion. The appellant‟s case is that his deceased father solely acquired the premises and built