Godwin Sasi D. Ogolo & Ors V. Chief Joseph Tumini Ogolo & Ors (2003)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

O. EDOZIE, J.S.C.

This appeal emanating from the judgment of the Court of Appeal Port Harcourt delivered on 15th April, 1997, arose from a chieftaincy dispute relating to the stool of Opobo Main House or Main Ogolo House of Opobo Town in Opobo Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State. Both parties are members of the Diepiri section of Opobo town within the ancient conglomerate of Opobo kingdom. The Diepiri section is made up of six War Canoe Houses, the head of which is the Ogolo Main House.

By tradition from time immemorial the Chief of Ogolo Main House is the traditional Head of the Diepiri section. With the dimise in 1981 of the then incumbent Chief of Ogolo Main House, Chief Raymond D. Ogolo, the chieftaincy stool became vacant and it was in the process of the selection and installation of a successor that dispute erupted.

The plaintiffs/respondents’ case is that the 1st plaintiff/respondent was in accordance with native law and custom validly and duly selected and installed as the Chief of Ogolo Main House on 29th November, 1985, and therefore the Head of Diepiri section. Angered by this assertion, the defendants/appellants instituted suit No. BHC/66/85 at the High Court of Bori to challenge the claim. During the pendency of that suit, the 10th defendant/appellant and his supporters underwent traditional ceremonies in April, 1986, in consequence of which the 10th defendant/appellant was said to have become duly installed as the Chief of Ogolo Main House. This gave rise to another suit No. BHC/16/86 instituted by the plaintiff/respondents wherein they sought two declaratory reliefs, i.e., a nullification of the installation of the 10th defendant/appellant and the recognition of the 1st plaintiff/respondent as the Chief of Ogolo Main House. They also claimed damages for trespass on the Palace of Ogolo Main House and injunctive reliefs restraining the defendants/appellants from holding out the 10th defendant as the Chief of Ogolo Main House. In the aforesaid suit No. BHC/16/86 which culminated in the present appeal, pleadings were duly filed, exchanged and subsequently amended with the Amended Statement of Claim, the Further Amended Statement of Defence and Reply to the Statement of Defence as the terminal pleadings upon which the case was contested. As formulated in paragraph 27 of the Amended Statement of Claim, the plaintiffs/respondents claimed jointly and severally against the defendants/appellants the following reliefs:-

“(1) A declaration that the purported and mock installation of the 10th Defendant (Levi Brown Ogolo) as the chief of Ogolo Main House on the 10th day of April, 1986, during the pendency of Suit No. BHC/66/85 is unlawful, null and void and of no legal effect whatsoever.

(2) A declaration that the installation of the 1st Plaintiff (Chief Joseph T. Ogolo) as the Chief of Ogolo Main House on the 29th November, 1985, is lawful and valid in accordance with the custom of Ogolo Main House of Ogolo town and that the palace of Chief Ogolo Diepiri in Ogolo Main House compound is customarily under the custody and control of the installed Chief of Ogolo Main House.

(3) N60,000.00 (Sixty Thousand Naira) being damages for trespass committed by the 11th – 16th Defendants in that on or about the 10th day of April, 1986, and on divers days before and thereafter, the aforesaid Defendants by themselves, their agents and servants without the consent of the Plaintiffs broke and entered into Ogolo Main House Palace desecrated same as well as the shrines in Opumogu and “Ihu Esi” of Chief Ogolo’s compound which are in peaceful possession of the Plaintiffs.

(4) Perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants, their agents and servants from holding out the 10th Defendant as Chief of Ogolo Main House in Opobo town.

(5) A perpetual injunction restraining the 10th Defendant by himself, servants, agents from holding himself out as or acting as the Chief of Ogolo Main House in Opobo town.”

At the trial, each party called witnesses and tendered several exhibits to substantiate its case. After the conclusion of the final addresses of learned counsel for both parties, the learned trial Judge, Opene, J., (as he then was), meticulously and painstakingly evaluated the evidence and in a well considered judgment delivered on 28th of July, 1993, dismissed the plaintiffs/respondents’ case. Thereafter, the plaintiffs/respondents lodged an appeal to the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, which court in a unanimous decision delivered on 15th April, 1987, allowed the appeal and ordered a retrial before the High Court. Against this decision of the Court of Appeal, the defendants/appellants have lodged the instant appeal with a notice of appeal containing only one ground of appeal which notice was subsequently amended with an additional ground of appeal.

Parties by their respective counsel filed and exchanged briefs of argument, which they adopted and relied upon with oral address in amplification of their briefs.

In the appellants’ brief, two issues were identified for the determination of the appeal, viz:-

“ISSUE NO. 1

Whether the learned Justices of the court below were correct in determining the appeal upon the footing that the essential elements of lawful installation of the Chief of the Ogolo Main House under the customary law and practice relating to such installation was a distinct issue placed before the lower court for adjudication.”