Alhaji Jelani Mabera Vs Peter Obi & Anor (1972)

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FATAYI-WILLIAMS, JSC

In suit No. 20/9/1970 in the Sokoto High Court, the plaintiff’s claim against the defendants jointly and severally, as formulated in his writ of summons, reads:-

“1. Recovery of his house and landed property valued at £5,000 (Five thousand pounds) situate and lying off Rigia Dorowa Sokoto. The said house was unlawfully attached and sold under a writ of execution by the first defendant to the second defendant while plaintiff was in the East Central State during the disturbance in the country.

2. Declaration of title.

3. £200 damages for trespass.

4. Accounts of all monies collected as rents by the second defendant from time of sale and that such monies be paid to the plaintiff.

5. That the purported sale of the house by first defendant to the second defendant be set aside, declared null and void and of no effect.”

Pleadings were ordered and were duly filed and delivered.

The facts as found by the learned trial Judge are not in dispute and may be summarised as follows:

The plaintiff whose full name is Peter Obi owned a house near Rigia Dorowa in Sokoto in the North-Western State. He lived in a portion of the house up till 1966. As a result of the disturbances in the country in 1966, the plaintiff who is an Ibo left Sokoto some time that year and did not return to Sokoto until the end of the civil war in 1970.

On his return, the plaintiff found that the Standard Bank Nigeria Ltd. (1st defendant) had unlawfully sold his house to the second defendant in satisfaction of a judgment debt owed by one Robert Benjamin Obi Ofiogbu. He approached the first defendant about the erroneous sale but the Bank Manager (1st D/W) said there was nothing the Bank could do about it. The 1st D/W testified as to the circumstances leading to the attachment and sale of the house as follows:-

“Our Bank had a customer named Robert Benjamin Obi Ofiogbu. He had an account with our Bank. The account was overdrawn. Our Solicitors obtained judgment against Mr. Ofiogbu in 1962. Judgement was obtained in the Kano High Court. I do not remember the suit number of the case. I see Exhibit I. I see Suit No. K/103/61 written on it.

I recognise this as the suit number. The judgment obtained against Ofiogbu was a little over £1,500. The debtor paid in on a monthly basis for about four years and then left the town in 1966. When he left in 1966, there remained a little over £300 still to be satisfied by the judgment debtor. Our Solicitors got a writ of attachment over the debtors immovable property to satisfy the remaining amount of $300. The writ was executed and the house sold by the Deputy Sheriff for £400. Our judgment debt was fully satisfied. Our Bank did not sell the house. The house was sold in 1967 and we got our money about two years later. In 1970, I was approached by Mr. Peter Obi who told me that he understood his house had been sold whereas he did not owe the Bank any money. Peter Obi in fact did not owe the Bank any money. We told him that there was nothing that could be done and that the matter was in the hands of the court, and that any action he should take to rectify the mistake should be through the court.”

The learned trial Judge, after summarising the evidence adduced before him by both parties and after making findings of fact in favour of the plaintiff, then considered the law with respect to the erroneous sale and found as follows:-