Chief James Adebayo Oyewusi & Ors V. Oba Sunday Olagbami & Ors (2018)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

KUDIRAT MOTONMORI OLATOKUNBO KEKERE-EKUN, J.S.C.

The appellants herein, as plaintiffs at the High Court of Oyo State, sitting at Ibadan, by their Further and Better Amended Statement of Claim filed on 14/4/2005 sought the following reliefs against the respondents, as defendants:

1. A Declaration that the purported transfer or grant of the land in dispute situate, lying and being at Ogbomoso farm settlement by the Oyo State Government to the 3rd defendant is illegal, unconstitutional, unlawful, irregular, and null and void.
2. A Declaration that the 1st and 2nd defendants are not entitled to transfer to the 3rd defendant the land acquired from the 1st plaintiff’s family by Oyo State Government for the purpose of Ogbomoso Farm Settlement.
3. N50 million damages for trespass committed and still being committed by the 3rd defendant on the land in dispute.
4. A Declaration that the 1st plaintiff is the family entitled to any reversion interest, release, transfer and or grant of the land in dispute made by the 1st and 2nd defendants.
5. An Injunction restraining the defendants by

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themselves, their agents, servants and or privies or otherwise howsoever from interfering or further interfering with the plaintiff’s possession and enjoyment of the land and from further trespassing on the land.

The 1st and 2nd defendants (now 2nd and 3rd respondents) filed their statement of defence on 23/10/2002, while the 3rd defendant (now 1st respondent) filed what he called “Third Defendant Consequential Statement of Defence to the further and better amended Statement of Claim” dated 4th of May,2004 and [filed] on 6th June 2004. The parties testified and called witnesses in support of their respective positions. They also relied on documentary evidence.

The facts that gave rise to this appeal are as follows:

The 1st appellant, who sued for himself and on behalf of the Ikolaba Ayoola Chieftaincy Family claimed to be the original owner of the land in dispute known as Ogbomoso Farm Settlement. The 2nd – 9th appellants are allottees of land in the Farm Settlement. The 1st respondent is the traditional ruler, the Onpetu of Ijeru in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area of Oyo State. The case of the appellants, is that the Ikolaba Ayoola Family became

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seised of the land in dispute vide a grant by Soun Kumoye, the Soun of Ogbomoso, to their ancestor, Ikolaba Olufimo and that upon his demise, the land devolved on his children and grandchildren who successively exercised acts of ownership thereon, including farming and the grant of customary tenancies. The 1st appellant’s family was allegedly approached sometime in 1948 by the Premier of the then Western Region and the Baale of Ogbomoso for the release of the land for the establishment of a farm school. It was the 1st appellant’s contention that the land was released on the basis of a “negotiated acquisition,” as no compensation was paid to the family. Upon the acquisition, the farm school was established.

The Government of the Western Region subsequently acquired another portion of the land from the family, which acquisition was published in the Western Region of Nigeria Gazette No.3 Vol. 9 (Exhibit 33). For this second acquisition the 1st appellant’s family was paid 460, with which the 1st appellant built his house. According to the appellants the later acquisition was merged with the

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former and collectively known as Ogbomoso Farm Settlement. However, locally the two acquisitions retained their original descriptions as Old Farm School and Ogbomoso Farm Settlement respectively.

The appellants further contend that the area covered by the Old Farm School as published in Exhibit 33, which was about 4,422 acres, was enlarged by the Government vide another acquisition contained in Notice No.876 of 12th July, 1962 published in Gazette No. 50 (Exhibit 33A) to cover approximately 6,116 acres. Portions of the enlarged parcel of land were granted to farmers for farming purposes only on leasehold basis.

It was contended that after the demise of his predecessor in title and after he had been installed as the traditional ruler of ljeru, the 1st respondent wrote to the government of western Region seeking the release of the old Farm school land. According to the appellants, the 1st respondent had trespassed on the land even before he wrote to request for its release by selling portions to third parties and even burying his wife thereon. Notwithstanding protests from the 1st appellant’s family and the farm settlement officer against the acts of