Alhaji Raufu Bamikole Okegbemi V. Ayisatu Akintola & Ors. (2007)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

AUGIE, J.C.A.

The Appellant and one other Plaintiff, who later died in the course of trial, instituted an action against the Respondents herein, at the Ibadan High Court of Oyo State, wherein they claimed as follows in their Statement of Claim –

(a) N20,000.00k (Twenty Thousand Naira) special and general damages jointly and severally against the Defendants for trespass committed by them on Plaintiffs’ family land situate, lying and being at Okegbemi Village, Moniya Area, Ibadan on or about the 29th of January, 1990.

(b) An order of this Honorable Court restraining the Defendants, their servants’ agents or privies from entering into the said land and committing further acts of trespass thereon.

Upon being served with the Statement of Claim, the Respondents filed a Statement of Defence and further Counter-Claimed for the following –

(a) A declaration that the 1st Defendant is the person entitled to be granted a statutory right of occupancy on all that piece or parcel of land measuring approximately 12 hectares more particularly delineated and marked red in plan number LSAT/Y/151 drawn and signed by W.T. Adeniji (Licensed Surveyor) dated 24th August, 1993.

(b) Perpetual Injunction restraining the Plaintiffs, their agents, servants and privies from further trespassing on the 1st Defendant’s land.

(c) N2,000.00 general damages for trespass committed by the Plaintiffs on the 1st Defendant’s land.

The pleadings were subsequently amended; the Appellants filed a “Reply to Amended Statement of Defence”; and with the leave of Court, the Respondents filed a “Rejoinder to Reply to Amended statement of Defence”.

At the trial, the two Plaintiffs and their three other witnesses gave evidence to the effect that the Appellant’s ancestor, Bamikole, was the first person to settle on the land in dispute and he was the one who granted land to the 1st Respondent’s ancestor, Adegboro, which does not include the land in dispute.

The 1st and the 3rd Respondents testified and called four other witnesses, who claimed that the land was given to the 1st Respondent’s ancestor, Adegboro by Folarin, a warrior who was settled on the land by his warlord, Ogunmola. After hearing addresses of counsel, the learned trial Judge, Boade, J., delivered Judgment on the 20th of February 2002, wherein he held as follows.

“Bamikole claimed to have settled in the area first but failed to establish how he came to settle there whether it was by conquest or grant as against the claim of Folarin that he was settled there by his warlord, Ogunmola. The fact that P.W.3 gave evidence that it was Bamikole that granted his ancestor land in the area does not remove the need for the Plaintiffs to explain how their ancestor settled on the land… There is no credible evidence that all the surrounding land of the land in dispute once belonged to Okegbemi family as to make the family the owner of the land in dispute. I therefore find it difficult to accept the evidence of traditional history as being conclusive to establish that the Plaintiffs have better title than the Defendants”.

He further held as follows on the Respondents’ Counter-Claim –

“For the Defendants to succeed – -they must satisfy the Court on the validity of Ogunmola’s title i.e. on how Ogunmola derived his title……… The Defendants failed to establish how Ogunmola derived his title before he granted the land to Folarin. In the light of the forgoing, I do not find the evidence of the traditional history to be cogent enough to support the claim of the Plaintiffs, neither are the pieces of evidence cogent enough to sustain the claim of the defendants. Where there is a conflict in traditional history, – – the traditional history is to be tested by recent facts established by evidence with a view to determining which of the conflicting versions is more probable” (Italics mine)