Michael Sunday Oroja & Ors V. Ebenezer Ilo Adeniyi & Ors (2017)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

MARY UKAEGO PETER-ODILI, J.S.C. 

The Appellants as plaintiffs sued the Respondents as Defendants for declaration of title to land at Meiran, Agege. The respondents filed a statement of defence and counter claim in respect of the land of Meiran, Araromi Oke-Meiran and Akitan. The suit was heard by E. F. Longe J. of the Ikeja judicial Division of the Lagos High Court and the Court gave Judgment to the appellants in the main claim and did not evaluate, consider and deliver judgment in respect of the respondent counter-claim. The respondent dissatisfied filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal Lagos Division, Corami I. A. Salami, M. D. Muhammad; C. B. Ogunbiyi JJCA with the lead judgment delivered by C. B. Ogunbiyi JCA (as she then was). The Court of Appeal or Court below allowed the appeal, set aside the judgment of the trial Court and remitted the entire case back to the Chief Judge for hearing de novo before another judge.

FACTS BRIEFLY STATED:

The appellants’ sought before the High Court a declaration to an entitlement to a customary right of occupancy in respect of farmland at Meran Village in

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Agege, Lagos and the total sum of N230,478,50 against the respondents being special and general damages suffered by the appellant as a result of the appellant’s crops destroyed by the respondents. They also asked for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from further trespassing on the land in dispute.

The claim of the appellants is grounded on their claim that their forefather, A Adeluola, over 200 years before had first settled on a large parcel of land which includes the farmland, the land now in dispute.

By the pleadings and the evidence proffered through 8 witnesses and the 23 exhibits tendered and admitted in evidence, the appellants linked their family to the land in dispute from Abeokuta till the time of the commencement of the action at the High Court. The appellants asserted that they had uninterrupted and exclusive possession of the land with a history of the descendants to the uninterrupted succession as Baale of Meran Village under which the land in dispute is located. They further asserted that respondents were strangers to the land and showed exhibit 13 as report prepared by the colonial district officer in

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1935 which showed that there was no land called Eshilo land as claimed by the respondents.

The case further put up by the appellants is that sometime in 1976, the Federal Government acquired a portion of the said farmland for low cost housing scheme and while negotiations were going on for compensation, the Federal Government, by a letter released a portion of the acquired land to the appellants and a survey was carried out in that respect and this dispute arose on the entering by the respondent into a portion of that land released. This case of the respondent is that their ancestor, Obalanloye Eshilo, who died in 1704 and was the first to settle on the land they called “Orile Eshilo”. From their pleadings and the evidence led by six witnesses and nine exhibits tendered and admitted into evidence before the Court, Odu-Oroja, who was a child of Adeluola, who was their tenant and was only permitted to farm on and also oversee Eshilo land. That they claim have exercised acts of possession on the land in dispute and thus counter-claimed for a declaration to an entitlement to a customary right of occupancy in respect of the land and farmland known as Orile Eshilo

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including Meiran, Araromi, Oke Meran and Akintan. They also claimed forfeiture, injunction and N5,000,00 as damages for trespass

The Court of trial granted the appellants’ claim preferring their traditional history but dismissed respondents’ counter claim without making a formal pronouncement. The Court below allowed the respondents’ appeal and remitted the case for retrial on the ground that the trial judge failed to make a pronouncement on the counter-claim thereby rendering the Judgment incomplete.