My first observation is that, contrary to what was the case with the Land Tenure Law of former Northern Nigeria which defined a “right of occupancy” as a “title to the use and occupation of land”, the Land Use Act, 1978, contains no such provision. It never associated the certificate with title. All it does is to give aright of occupancy to an “occupier”, an occupier meaning “any person lawfully occupying land under customary law and a person using and occupying land in accordance with customary law and includes the sub-lessee or sub-under lessee of a holder.” “Occupy” is not defined in the Act. But according to Oxford Universal Dictionary illustrated (3rd Edn.) Vol.2, p.1356, to “occupy” means “to take up, use up, fill (space or time).” It can therefore be seen that a person who occupies real property does not necessarily assert title or ownership to it. He does not even necessarily assert possession of it which not only entails physical possession (or right to possess) but also the intention to defend that possession against the whole world except, sometimes, the true owner. Title, on the other hand, implies the existence of facts from which the right to ownership and possession could be inferred, limitation being only in terms of time, depending as such a title is freehold or leasehold, and so on.
— Nnaemeka-Agu, JSC. Ogunleye v Oni (1990) – S.C. 193/1987