Akunwata Ogbogu Mbanefo V. Nwakibie Henry Molokwu & Ors. (2008)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

MOHAMMED L. TSAMIYA, J.C.A.

This is an appeal by the appellant who was the plaintiff in the Anambra State High Court (herein referred to as the trial Court) against the decision of Anigbogu J. delivered on 22/6/2006 in suit No. 0/1/2005 at the Ihiala Judicial Division.

By his statement of claim dated 4/1/05 the appellant claimed jointly and severally against the defendants as respondents in the following:

a) “A declaration that the respondents also not have the authority and power to stop the appellant from participating In Ozo title ceremonies and from enjoying his rights and (sic) privileges as an Ozo titled man at every Ozo title Ceremony so long as he is not in breach of any Ozo rules and the Agbalanze Onitsha Constitution.

b) An order restraining the respondents their agents, Privies, Workmen and assigns whether by themselves or by others from stopping or interfering with the appellant’s participation in and enjoying of Ozo title Ceremonies as well as his right and privileges attended thereto.

c) An order directing the respondents to pay over to the appellant all his Ozo dues from 26/12/2004 keep to the time the respondents or their successors shall have lifted and stopped the unlawful ban.

d) An order nullifying section 26(d) of the Agbalanze Onitsha Constitution as being in conflict with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

e) N500,000.00 (Five hundred thousand Naira) being general damages for depriving the appellant of his constitutional rights Freedom of Association and Assembly.”

The case as pleaded by the appellant was that, he has been a regular member of Agbalanze Society of Onitsha which is an association of titled men, having been initiated in 1984 in accordance with the Usages and Custom of Odimegwugbueagu Ozo Group I, his kindred Unit. As a member of Agbalanze Onitsha, and on 26/12/2004, on invitation, he attended a function of the association. As he sat he was summoned to the Executive table, where the 1st respondent who is the president of the association asked him to leave the function as he had been ostracized. He demanded a document to evidence the action but the 3rd respondent who was the Secretary of the association asked him to comply with the directive of the president. He was emphatic that the other respondents who are members of the association acquiesced to the decision. The appellant emphasized that he was not told the reasons for his being asked to withdraw from the function of the association with a directive not to attend future Ozo ceremonies. He obeyed and left and has not attended any Ozo ceremony since.

The respondents’ case as per their statement of defence is that, following the successful peaceful and duly Constituted emergence of Obi Alfred Nnameka Achebe Agbogidi, mni as the Obi of Onitsha, few individuals numbering less that 50 embarked on acts which were inimical to the Onitsha Community and aimed at occasioning dis-affection and disorder in the Onitsha indigenous Community.

These few individual elements principally hailed from the non-royal clan in Onitsha. They engaged in acts of rebellion against the monarch as well as of great violence to the customs and tradition of Onitsha with a determined objective of occasioning a state of emergency in the Onitsha town. In furtherance of their impious pursuits, the appellant, an active forerunner and participant in the activities of the rebellious group acting in concert with others, executed the purported conferment of the revered title of “Ajie Ukadiugwu” on one Dr. Gabriel Emodi, barely a few days after the internment of the holder of the title, late Dr. Chief Ukpabi Asika, but while his obsequies were still being observed.

Under the Onitsha customs, only the Obi of Onitsha enjoyed the prerogative of conferring a title on an Onitsha indigene. This blatant usurpation of the rights of Obi and the denigration of the Onitsha Customs and tradition Creative(sic) a restive situation in the Community as people gathered and resolved to react violently. However, better judgment prevailed when the “Ugwunaobamkpa” Kindred group to which the appellant belonged and which encompassed his Agbalanze association, met and resolved to take disciplinary action against the appellant and his fellow renegades, and after affording them a right to be heard, took a decision to suspend them from activities of the Community until they purged themselves of their contempt.

The said “Ugwunaobamkpa” Kindred group as well as others proceeded to the Onitsha Indigenous Community where the entire Community, including the Agbalanze Association adopted the decision of the Kindred groups.

This is the situation prevailing when on 26/12/2004 the appellant attended the function of the association.