Amobi V. Ogidi Union (Nig) & Ors (2021)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, J.S.C.

This Appeal involving a Chieftaincy matter, turns on a narrow issue of whether it is the exclusive preserve of the Uru Ogidi Quarters in Ogidi, Anambra State, and the Amobi Family in particular, to produce the IGWE or EZE of the town.

In 2003, the President of the Uru Ogidi Union, and six other Plaintiffs, including fifth and sixth Respondents herein, instituted an action for themselves and on behalf of the Uru Ogidi Quarters, Ogidi, at the Idemili Judicial Division of Anambra State High Court, sitting in Ogidi, wherein they claimed as follows:

(a) A Declaration – that the document purporting to be the Igwe Ogidi Constitution which was made by the 1st to 3rd Defendants is not a legal document in that the production of the same did not comply with the norms, rules, and regulations for the production of such important document and therefore null and void.

(b) A Declaration – that from time immemorial URU QUARTER of Ogidi is the provider of EZE or IGWE Ogidi and that there has not been any reason for a change.

(c) An Order – restraining the Defendants, their agents, or privies from the proposed selection of Eze or Igwe Ogidi from any quarter except URU QUARTER Ogidi, in accordance with the traditional history and custom of Ogidi.

(d) A Declaration – that the proposed selection of EZE or IGWE Ogidi on 11/10/2003 is not in conformity with the history, culture, and tradition of Ogidi and is therefore unconstitutional and a negation of the customs and practices of Ogidi people.

(e) A Declaration that the appellation of EZE CHUAMAGHA 1 as the new Eze or Igwe Ogidi is a total negation of the history and tradition of Ogidi people since it presupposes that Ogidi is now getting an Igwe or Eze for the first time.

(f) An Order – that Eze or Igwe Ogidi shall be selected from the URU QUARTER Ogidi in keeping with the custom and tradition of the people of Ogidi.

(g) An Order of injunction against the Defendants, their agents, or privies in any manner whatsoever from imposing the so called IGWE OGIDI CONSTITUTION 2003 (REVISED) on the Ogidi people particularly Uru Ogidi Community.

There were four Defendants – first, third and fourth Respondents herein as the first, third and fourth Defendants, and one “Chief Sir Chudi Obiakor, President General, Ogidi Union, Nigeria”, as second Defendant, and their stand was that there is nowhere in the Constitution of Ogidi or tradition where it is provided or shown that the said Stool resides in the exclusive preserve of Amobi Family of Uru Quarter or in Uru Quarter itself. In his judgment delivered on 17/12/2012, the learned trial Judge, Anigbogu, J, dismissed the said claims and concluded:

It is hereby declared that from the available evidence, and the Constitution based on the existing facts and Exhibits, the Stool of Igwe or Eze Ogidi is not hereditary and every free born of Ogidi, including the Plaintiffs and the 4th Defendant, is entitled to aspire to be selected to that throne.

The said Plaintiffs, who were dissatisfied, then appealed to the Court of Appeal, wherein they also lost, because the Court of Appeal in its judgment delivered on 10/5/2017, dismissed the Appeal and affirmed the decision of the trial Court.

The Appellant, who was substituted at the Court of Appeal as the sixth Appellant after the death of “Chief Collins Ibaku Amobi”, appealed to this Court with a Notice of Appeal that he later amended. The amended Notice of Appeal has eight Grounds of Appeal, and he has distilled five Issues for Determination.