I am guided by the authors of Halsbury’s Laws of England fourth Edition Reissue page 496 paragraph 524 in which the theory of surrender was propounded thus:- “A surrender is a voluntary act of the parties whereby, with the landlord’s consent, the tenant surrenders his lease to the landlord so that the lease merges with the reversion and is thus brought to an end. It is defined as being the yielding up of the term to the person who has the immediate estate in reversion in order that, by mutual agreement, the term may merge in the reversion. The surrender may be either express, that is by an act of the parties having the expressed intention of effecting a surrender, or by operation of law, that is as an inference from the acts of the parties. The parties to the surrender must be the owner of the term and the owner of the immediate reversion expectant on the term. Consequently an undertenant cannot surrender his underlease to the head landlord. A surrender must be of the entire term in the premises; hence a tenancy held jointly cannot be surrendered by one of two joint tenants. A part only of the demised premises may, however, be surrendered”.
— A.M. Mukhtar JSC. Ohochukwu V. AG Rivers State & Ors. (SC.207/2004 • 17 February 2012)