CaseLaw
Sanni V. Ademiluyi (2003) CLR 1(g) (SC)
Judgement delivered on January 17th 2003
Brief
Facts
The Plaintiff is the son of one Okero Ademiluyi who died some years ago leaving behind a piece or parcel of land now in dispute. Plaintiff is representing the family of the said Okero Ademiluyi in these proceedings. The land in dispute is situate at Idi-Ogun village in Ife District.
Okero Ademiluyi was the son of Oba Ajagun Ademiluyi the Ooni of Ife who reigned from 1910-1930. According to the Plaintiff, by the customary law of Ife, all land in the Kingdom belongs to the Ooni of Ife who has dominion over it. Okero Ademiluyi was a hunter and a farmer. His father the Ooni Ademiluyi granted the land in dispute to him about 70 years before the institution of this action in 1986. Following the grant of the land to him, Okero Ademiluyi took possession and did hunting and farming on the land until his death on or about 1981. He planted cocoa, kola, palm trees etc. on the land and had several servants working for him. The Plaintiff was placed on the land by Okero his father as an overseer. Okero also granted part of the land to other people to do farming. One Jimoh Ajani was one of the servants who worked on the land.
The case for the Defendant was quite different. It is his own case that every family in Ile-Ife has his own farmland and that the farmland in dispute belongs to the family of Sanni Fogbonja. Sanni Fogbonja was the father of the Defendant Warobi the great grand father of the Defendant and a hunter and farmer in his day was the first to settle on the said farmland about 100 years before the filing of this suit. Warobi died and was succeeded on the land by Fogbonja his son who continued to practise hunting and farming on the land as Warobi did in his day. After the death of Fogbonja his son Sanni succeeded him on the land. This Sanni was the father of the Defendant and he farmed and did hunting on the land. Both the Defendant and his father farmed on the land and did hunting. Sanni died in December 1982 and it was after his death that the Plaintiff started harassing the Defendant and his late father's tenants on the land. According to the Defendant the Plaintiff's family land is at Elegberun village in Ife."
By paragraph 23 of the Amended Statement of Claim the Plaintiff (who is the Respondent in this appeal) had claimed from the Defendant, now Appellant:
"23. Whereof the Plaintiff's claim against the Defendant is for a declaration that the Plaintiff is entitled to occupation and possession of the farmland situate, lying and being at Idi-Ogun Village, Ife in accordance with native law and custom of Ife having been in lawful occupation and possession of the said land long before the Land Use Act.
The Plaintiff also claims perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants, his servants, agents or privies from further entry or trespass on the said farmland."
The Defendant resisted the claim and filed a Statement of Defence which he subsequently amended. The matter went to trial at which the parties called witnesses.
The Learned Trial Judge Adeniran J., in a reserved judgment found Plaintiff's claim not proved and dismissed it with costs. The Plaintiff being dissatisfied with the Judgment of the Trial High Court appealed to the Court of Appeal. The appeal was successful. The Court of Appeal set aside the judgment of the Trial High Court and entered judgment in favour of the Plaintiff and his claims.
It is against this judgment that the Defendant has now appealed to this Court.