Labaran Fagge V. Rakiya Dalha Amadu (2015)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

HABEEB ADEWALE OLUMUYIWA ABIRU, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal is against the judgment of the Kano State High Court in Suit No K/37/2007 delivered by Honorable Justice Tani Yusuf Hassan on the 29th of June, 2009. The Respondent commenced the action in the lower Court against the Appellant and her claims were for:

i. An order declaring the Plaintiff as the rightful owner of the plot of land the subject of this suit as against the Defendant and any other person whosoever.

ii. An order declaring the action of the Defendant of erecting a structure on the said plot as tantamount to trespass and wrongful.

iii. An order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant or any person claiming through or under him from further trespassing upon the said plot of land.

iv. An order for special and general damages for trespass and unlawful occupation in the sum of N1 Million.

v. Costs of this action.

The case of the Respondent on the pleadings was that she was the rightful owner of the plot of land covered by a certificate of occupancy No LKN/RES/92/1069 and demarcated as Plot No 1116 on Plan No TP/UDB/172 in

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the office of the Surveyor General of Kano State and that she inherited the plot of land from her late father, Dalha Amadu, who died on or about 1999 survived by herself, her mother and other siblings as the heirs to his Estate. It was her case that the plot of land, whose documents carry the name of her brother Muazu Dalha, was confirmed to be part of the properties left behind by her late father and that her late father came to own the plot of land when he was allocated same by the State Government by a letter of grant dated the 10th of August, 1993, written in the name of Muazu Dalha, as partial compensation for the acquisition of his farmland at Dorayi Babba from which the residential layout was carved out.

It was the case of the Respondent that upon the demise of her late father, the family went before the Upper Sharia Court in Yankaba for the sharing of his Estate and that the Court, amongst other properties, granted her the plot of land in dispute as part of her share of the Estate and a writ possession dated the 26th of May, 1999 was issued to her as evidence of her ownership of the land. It was her case that the plot of land was identified to her

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by the officials of the Lands Ministry as the plot covered by the letter of grant and that when she went thereon she saw that the Appellant was erecting a structure thereon and that she informed the Appellant that she owned the plot of land that he should desist from constructing thereon and that the Appellant ignored her and continued the construction on the land.

The case of the Appellant in response was that he was the owner of the plot of land in dispute known at Plot No 1116 lying and situate in Dorayi Babba in Dala District and covered by Kano State Certificate of Occupancy No LKN/RES/91/7456 and that he acquired the plot of land by outright purchase in 2001 from one Mato who became possessed of same through the original allottee. It was his case that the Certificate of Occupancy No LKN/RES/91/7456 over the said Plot No 1116 was processed sometime in 1995 in the name of Ahmed Abdu, the original allottee of the said land who duly paid all the required fees due to the Government including the ground rents and that after the purchase of the land, he erected a two-bedroom bungalow thereon valued at N2.5 Million after obtaining necessary permits for the