Garuba Abioye & Ors. V. Sa’adu Yakubu & Ors (1991)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

BELLO, C.J.N.

The main issue for determination in this appeal is whether, having regard to the provisions of the Land Use Act 1978, customary owners are entitled to be granted declaration of title to a parcel of land against their customary tenants. The facts of the case as found by the trial judge for the determination of the issue may be summarised.

The first Plaintiff is the village head of Basanyin village in Ifedapo Local Government Area of Kwara State and the other Plaintiffs are his chiefs. The Plaintiffs and their people call the land in dispute Gaa Kekere or Gaa Oke.

About 60 years ago, the Plaintiff’s ancestors permitted the Defendants’ ancestors, who were nomadic Fulanis to settle on the land as customary tenants for farming and grazing purposes. Their ancestors and the Defendants were paying tribute to the ancestors of the Plaintiffs and to the Plaintiffs from the time they had been allowed to settle on the land until when they stopped paying the tribute about ten years before the action was instituted.

In 1981, without consent, permission or authority of the Plaintiffs, the Defendants erected three big sign-boards bearing the inscription “GAA IRAPA IDERA IFEDAPO” in three separate places at the said settlement. It was because of the erection of the sign-boards, suggesting that the land in dispute was known as Gaa Irapa; that the land belongs to Irapa village and that the Defendants had been put on the land by the people of Irapa village that the Plaintiffs instituted the action claiming for declarations and injunction against the Defendants as follows:

“(a) A declaration that a piece of land lying and situated very close to a village called Basanyin in Ifedapo Local Government Area of Kwara State on which a group of houses known as Gaa Kekere or ‘Gaa Oke’ and now inhabited by the Defendants and some others was and is still the farmland of the Plaintiffs from time immemorial;

(b) A declaration that Defendants are tenants to the plaintiffs on the said farm land referred to in paragraph (a) above the plaintiffs having given out the said farmland to Defendants at the request of the defendants for farming and grazing purposes only;

(c) A declaration that the plaintiffs never alienated the said farmland to Defendants by way of sale or gift and plaintiffs are still therefore the holders of the customary right of occupancy over the said farmland;

(d) A declaration that the act of the defendants whereby sometime in November, 1981 they erected 3 signboards bearing the inscription ‘GAA IRAPA IDERA IFEDAPO’ in 3 separate places on the said farmland which signboards plaintiffs defendants’ landlords found objectionable and provocative and therefore opposed and which defendants refused or neglected and still refuse and neglect to remove despite plaintiffs’ repeated requests to them to do so, constitute a grave act of nuisance and provocation on the parts of defendants as regards their landlords the plaintiffs;

(e) A decree of the Court ordering the defendants to remove the said offending signboards forthwith since plaintiffs their landlords find it objectionable, provocative and unbearable;

(f) A permanent injunction restraining the defendants from ever erecting permanent structures like the said offending sign-boards on the said farmland of plaintiffs now occupied by defendants and their relatives and friends without the prior written approval of the plaintiffs first sought and obtained.”

In his judgment after having reviewed and appraised the evidence adduced by the parties, the trial judge accepted the plaintiff’s case as I have stated in the above finding of facts. He rejected the version of the defendants that their ancestor, one Ayuba Kure had been put on the land about 150 years ago by the people of Irapa Village; that the land has been known as Gaa Irapa and that their ancestors and themselves have been paying tribute to the people of Irapa. He dismissed their counter-claim against the plaintiffs, which was as follows:

“(a) A declaratory injunction restraining the plaintiffs from removing the 3 sign-boards or any structures that may be erected by the defendants on their land.

(b) A declaration that the present Gaa Irapa Village and its farm and grazing land- belong customarily to the defendants having been devolved to the defendants by the forefathers of the present Bale of Irapa.