The dispute over a land or incidences of land ownership in the history of Nigeria jurisprudence and literature in land law has been largely the cause of anxieties and stress and many have gone to the grave prematurely in battling over land matters, some no more than inanities.

The Appellants had instituted an action in the High Court at Offa in Kwara State and claimed a declaration that they are part owners of shops/stores situate at Adeleke Road Owode Market Offa per the stripes system of inheritance, and also an order of accounts. Their case is that the land was the property of their father one Pa Williams and that they the Appellants, the Respondent's mother and his grand mother all contributed money for the erection of the structure therein. They averred that they delegated the Respondent to supervise the building and thereafter collect rents from the shops but the Respondent was collecting the rent for himself only.

The Respondent replicando said that the land on which the land shop/store was built was bought by his mother one Alhaja Salimato Shogo with a financial assistance of her husband Mr. Bello Shogo. In order to induce one Pa Salami the Appellants' father to return home to Offa, a portion of that land was given to him by Alhaja Shogo, but Salami could not complete the house due to impecuniosity and later abandoned it, the structure was given to Madam Shogo's brother then living in Kano. He said that since the completion of that shop, the said Alhaja had continued to collect rents for that building.

In the High Court, judgment was given to the Appellants but on appeal to the Court of Appeal, the judgment of the High Court was reversed and set aside. Not happy with the Judgment of the Court of Appeal, the Appellants appealed to this Court