Patrick Okwuchukwu Ajakwe V. Ifeanyi Ajakwe & Ors (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

TOM SHAIBU YAKUBU, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

The appellant was the plaintiff at the High Court of Justice of Anambra State, holden at Awka. He had vide a Writ of Summons, issued on 8th October, 2007, and with a Statement of Claim, contemporaneously filed on the same 8th October, 2007; prayed at paragraph 16 thereof, for the following reliefs:

?a. A DECLARATION that Mr. Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe (deceased) was a man subject to the native law and custom of the people of Awka, Anambra State.

b. A DECLARATION that the document purporting to be the last Will and testament of late Mr. Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe is not the last Will and testament of late Mr. Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe who died intestate.

c. A DECLARATION that Mr. Patrick Okwuchukwu Ajakwe being the first son of the late Mr. Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe on the death of his father succeeded his father as the head of the family and inherited his father?s ?Obi? being the piece or parcel of land known as No. 69 Zik Avenue Awka, formerly No. 79 Enugu Road, Awka, Anambra State (the ?property?) to the exclusion of all other

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persons, including and especially the 1st and 2nd Defendants, in accordance with the native and custom of the people of Awka, Anambra State.

d. A DECLARATION that under native law and custom of the people of Awka, a man?s ?Obi? is not subject to alienation, partition or disposition by Will or otherwise.

e. A DECLARATION that Mr. Patrick Okwuchukwu Ajakwe being the first son of late Mr. Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe on the death of his father is entitled to the possession or custody and control of all other property real and personal of the said Mr. Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe (deceased) in accordance with the native law and custom of the Awka people of Anambra State, pending the sharing of same amongst the son, of Mr. Patrick Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe (deceased).

f. A DECLARATION that the 3rd to 5th Defendants are strangers to Mr. Patrick Nnonyelu Okafor Ajakwe?s estate and have no interest thereto and that all acts done by them in relation to the estate is null and void having acted without authority and amount to trespass.

g. AN ORDER of Court directing the Defendants to deliver immediate possession of the

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property (including all the rooms and the keys thereat) to the plaintiff.

h. ACCOUNT of all monies collected by the Defendants from the property and immediate payment of same to the plaintiff.