Chief Ademuagun Opoto & Ors V. Chief Peter Adebisi Anaun & Ors (2015)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

AYOBODE OLUJIMI LOKULO-SODIPE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal is against the judgment delivered on 19/12/2013 by the High Court of Justice, Ekiti State of Nigeria holden in the Ado-Ekiti Judicial Division and presided over by Hon. Justice J.O. Adeyeye (hereafter to be simply referred to as “the lower Court” and “learned trial Judge” respectively). In the said judgment, the learned trial Judge dismissed the claims of the Appellants (i.e. Plaintiffs) in their entirety.

The case was tried on pleadings filed and exchanged by the parties. Parties severally amended their respective pleadings. The pleadings of the parties upon which the case was tried and decided by the lower Court as captured in the judgment of the lower Court are (i) Further and Further Amended Statement of Claim dated 22/3/2010 and filed on 23/3/2010 (hereafter to be simply referred to as “statement of claim”); and (ii) Fourth Further Amended Statement of Defence filed on 18/6/2013 and to which the Appellants filed no Reply (hereafter to be simply referred to as “statement of defence”).

The case of the Appellants as set up in the Statement of Claim is to the effect that they are the owners of the land in dispute situate lying and being at Idimo Road, Omi Agbaan, Iluomoba-Ekiti. The description of the said parcel of land was given in the statement of claim and the survey plans in which it was more particularly described were pleaded. It is the case of the Appellants that their ancestor, Oso Ejemikin who founded Iluomoba settled on the land in dispute several years ago from time immemorial.

The Appellants set out the names of the heads of Opoto family who in succession had been in possession of the land. The Appellants averred to the effect that after Ejemikin founded Iluomoba and settled there, other families came from time to time to join him and settled on the land surrounding Iluomoba town. The order of the arrival and settling of the families in question beside Ejemikin was set out in the statement of claim. The Appellants depicted Chief Opoto as arriving first in time while Chief Anaun is shown as arriving fifth in time. According to the Appellants, all of the families have separate parcels of land on arrival and settled on separate pieces of land around Iluomoba town.

Again, averring that the land in dispute falls within the land settled upon by Ejemikin, the founder of Iluomoba, the Appellants depicted Ejemikin to have settled at Iluomoba with his junior brother who became Chief Opoto, the highest chief in the family. It is also the case of the Appellants that though Oso Ejemikin and the Opoto families had already settled in Iluomoba before the arrival of Ajagun Dero, the first Ajagun of Iluomoba, the rulership of the town was however conceded to him as he came with a beaded crown from Ile-Ife and that this has remained the position till date.

The Appellants further made averments concerning where the progenitor of the Respondents hailed or came from and how the Respondents’ progenitor and his brother came to be accommodated in Iluomoba with the said progenitor being given the title of “Anaun” which made him the second in command to Ajagun the ruler of the town; while his brother was given the title of Osere. It is the case of the Appellants that it was Chief Opoto that instructed the then reigning traditional ruler to allocate a parcel of land to the Anaun family and that the land allocated to them is alongside Aisegba Road, Iluomoba.

The Appellants further narrated the various rights they have been exercising over the land in dispute without let or hindrance until when the Respondents’ family (none of the members of which has a farm thereon) started laying claim to the said land. The case of the Appellants is to the effect that it was after the Respondents had first sold part of the land in dispute to one Mrs. Ojo (who they prevented from completing her building thereon); and another portion to the 2nd Respondent in 2001 (an action which they protested against), that the Respondents went on the land in dispute about 3 weeks later, cleared a large portion of it preparatory to planting crops thereon.

In the premises of the facts averred in the statement of claim, the Appellants claimed against the Respondents as follows: –

“i. Declaration that the plaintiff are entitled to certificate of customary right of occupancy in respect of a piece or parcel of land situate, lying and being at Idimo Road, Omi Agbaan, Iluomoba-Ekiti.

ii. N500,000.00k being general damages for trespass which the defendants committed on the said land sometime during the month of February 2001 and which trespass still continues.

iii. A perpetual injunction restraining the defendants their servants and agent from committing further acts of trespass on the said land.”

The Respondents controverted the Appellants’ claim to the ownership of the land in dispute in the statement of defence. They averred to the effect that one Anaun founded the present Iluomoba Ekiti and that his descendants have always exercised rights of ownership on the land. It is not only the case of the Respondents that Omi Agbaan is on their family land along Ijan Igbemo road (and not along Idimo road), but they set out the names of members of their family that have farms on the land in dispute.

The Appellants gave evidence in support of the case they set up in the statement of claim through nine witnesses and tendered Exhibits marked P1, P2 and P3; while the Respondents called six witnesses and tendered an Exhibit marked D1 in the proof of the case they set up in the statement of defence. Having had the benefit of the written addresses filed by the parties and after evaluating the totality of evidence before the lower Court, the learned trial Judge dismissed the case of the Appellants.