Chief The Hon. Orabule Adele V. Appollos Chinda & Ors (2017)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

SAIDU TANKO HUSAINI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

On the 13th July, 2006, Charles Graville, J. of the High Court of Rivers State sitting in Port-Harcourt dismissed the application brought before it, seeking as it were, the enforcement of the fundamental rights of the appellant against the respondents. The case was commenced with leave of the High Court duly sought wherein the appellant (as applicant) claimed sundry reliefs against the respondents thus:-

?A declaration that;

1. The purported fine unilaterally and arbitrarily imposed by the respondents on the Applicant is unlawful, contrary to natural justice, unconstitutional, contrary to customs and tradition of Ikpokwu family, null and void.
2. Denial of farmland plot to the applicant who is duly entitled thereto by the Respondents is unlawful, contrary to natural justice, contrary to customs and tradition of Ikpokwu family and so null and void.

?3. Purported excommunication, ostracisation from interaction with other members of the Ikpokwu family, unilaterally and arbitrarily levied on the applicant by the Respondents is unlawful, unconstitutional,

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contrary to custom and tradition of Ikpokwu family, null and void.

4. Purported partitioning and sharing of Ikpokwu-Nu-Wozuzu family lands and selling same without consensus of the principal members of the family is unlawful contrary to traditions customs of Ikpokwu-Nu-Wozuzu family, null and void.
5. The conduct of the Respondents who without credible legitimacy have constituted themselves into a lawless cabal, intimidating and terrorizing the elders and other reasonable members of the family into silence by arbitrary and unilateral imposition of baseless fines, cultism, barefaced, falsehood, blackmail, threat of violence all aim at destabilizing the Ikpokwu-Nu-Wozuzu family and misappropriating to themselves the family?s commonwealth is unlawful, unconstitutional, contrary to natural justice, contrary to tradition and customs, of the Ikpokwu-Nu-Wozuzu family of Nkpor – Rumuolumeni, null, void and of no effect whatsoever.
6. N50 Million damages for denying the applicant his rightful share of the farmland for 2002 farming season.
7. N50 Million damages for the violation of the applicant?s fundamental rights guaranteed under the

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Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

8. Perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents, their servants, agents, privies. howsoever, from further violation of applicant?s rights and further conducting themselves in manner inimical to and capable of destabilizing the Ikpokwu family of Nkpor-Rumuolumi of which the applicant is a member.
9. Perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents, their servants, agents, and privies from any further acts howsoever inimical to the general interest and wellbeing of the Ikpokwu-Nu-Wozuzufamily, partitioning of family lands, usurpation of family members right, threats and consummation of violence, arbitrary and imposition of fines, intimidation, blackmail, cultism, falsehood against members generally and acts of confusion, breach of peace, and/or violation of members fundamental rights or any act or conduct, tending to destabilized, embarrass or ridicule the Ikpokwu-Nu-Wozuzu family of Nkpor-Rumuolumeni of which the Applicant is a member.
10. Perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents, their servants, agents, privies howsoever, from usurping the age-long traditional power,

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authority, rights and functions of the legitimate elders and principal members including the Applicant of the Ikpokwu/Wozuzu family in the due discharge of their traditional and customary roles in the administration of the affairs of the family.

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The application was predicated on certain grounds and these are all listed in the motion paper as reproduced in the record of appeal at pages 31-32. Briefly stated, the complaint of the appellant against the respondent is on account of the arbitrary and unlawful imposition of fines and sanctions against the appellant by the respondents without a hearing being given; that the respondents unlawfully refused and failed to apportion farmland Plot to him during the 2002 farming season; that the respondents unlawfully ostracized him (the appellant) from his community and from interacting with members of the Ikpokwu family; that the existence of the respondents as a group and their gang up against him (appellant) lack legitimacy and unlawful as the same was meant to intimidate and harass him with intent to suppress his will and thought; that respondents exerted coersive and divisive tendencies and varied the age long

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sharing formula of Ikpokwu/Wozuzu family land to suit themselves.