The suit was prompted by the Report of the Commission set up by the Government of the erstwhile Ondo State and the Government white paper (or views) on it. The Commission was known as Oluwole Chieftaincy Review Commission concerning the Chieftaincy Declaration for the Elejelu of Ijelu Chieftaincy. On 24th March, 1993, Akinyede, J. who heard the suit gave judgment in which he granted reliefs 2 and 5, as claimed, but relief 6 partially. He refused reliefs 1, 3 and 4.
The 4th Defendant appealed while the Plaintiff cross-appealed against the judgment. The appeal raised 8 issues from 10 grounds of appeal filed. The Court below set out all the grounds of appeal and the issues, and observed, per Mahmud Mohammed JCA, who read the leading judgment, thus:
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"I have decided to quote in full all the grounds of appeal and the issues identified by the Appellant in his brief of argument to show how some of the grounds of appeal and the issues said to have arisen from those grounds have been very carelessly drafted to the extent of making some of the grounds of appeal and the issues arising from them incompetent. This is because some of the affected grounds of appeal were drafted in complete violation of the requirements of Order 3 Rule 2 sub-rules (2), (3) and (4) of the Court of Appeal Rules 1981 as amended. Although grounds (3), (4) (5) and (8) of the Appellant's grounds of appeal had alleged error in law and misdirection in law, no attempt was made to give the particulars of the alleged error or misdirection. Therefore the 4 grounds of appeal having failed to satisfy the requirement of Order 3 Rule 2(2) of the Rules of this Court are incompetent."
On 15 January, 1998, the Court below dismissed the appeal and allowed the cross-appeal. By so doing, it meant that all the reliefs sought by the Plaintiff in Para. 56 of the amended statement of claim were wholly granted. The 4th Defendant, Ezekiel Olatunde, who has since died and been substituted by Ogundare Osasona, has further appealed to this Court.
