The appellants as plaintiffs claimed against the respondents as defendants certain declaratory, nullification and injunctive reliefs in relation to the Elemure of Emure Ekiti Chieftaincy.

The dispute between the parties is essentially about the number of Ruling Houses entitled to fill the stool of the Elemure of Emure Ekiti when vacant. The appellants contend that there is only one Ruling house, the Adumori Ruling House while the respondents maintain that there are two Ruling Houses, namely (a) the Adumori Ruling House and (b) the Abenimota Ruling House. The respondents belong to the latter. Both sides relied on the traditional history of Emure Ekiti people. The traditional evidence adduced was however in conflict.

It was the case of the appellants that the first Elemure of Emure Ekiti was Adumori Ogunragaboja who lived between 1780 and 1845 or thereabout. Between 1780 and 1974 all Obas who reigned as Elemure of Emure Ekiti were from the Adumori family. The grandfather of the two appellants was Oba Joseph Ogunloye Wilson alias Arosoye who reigned between 1924 and 1931 and was from the Adumori family. That the name Abenimota as a Ruling house was first heard in 1956, when the 1958 Registered Declaration tendered as Exhibit 5 was made. In 1965, as a result of protests from the Adumori family, Exhibit 5 was nullified by the 1965 Registered Declaration tendered as Exhibit 6, thereby restoring the pre 1958 position with Adumori as the only Ruling House.

In 1981 the Morgan Chieftaincy Review Commission’s recommendation to the Governor of Ondo State that the Abenimota family be made a Ruling house was accepted, by which there would be two Ruling Houses in Emure Ekiti, namely: the Abenimota and the Adumori Ruling Houses. The Report of the Commission and the approval of the Governor were tendered as exhibits 9 and 11.

On the other hand, the respondents’ case is that there are two Ruling Houses to the Elemure of Emure Ekiti Chieftaincy title: Abenimota and Adumori Ruling Houses. Both Abenimota and Adumori are children of the same father by name Okutuagbonkoja, Abenimota being the elder brother and Adumori the younger Abenimota was the Elemure who brought the Emure people to its present site from Igbo Ora. All princes in Emure have the name Oshin ascribed to them this being the name of the original dynasty of the princes. Before the Declaration of 1958 Declaration truly represented and still represents the tradition and custom of Emure relating to the ascension of an Elemure and accords with the popular wishes of the people.

The respondents further contended that the descendants of Abenimota have reigned as Elemure of Emure Ekiti, such as Kanga, Aladeleye, Atikuopolo, Atobiloye and Odoba Famuti. Prince Ajiboye of the Abenimota Ruling House was in 1969 unanimously selected to succeed Oba Aminmin II. But the Government of the day replaced him with Oba Ogunleye II. Both princes and princesses of the two Ruling House are members of the “Egbe Omo Elemure”. At the time of the litigation, both the heads of the male and female sections are from the Abenimota Ruling house. At the conclusion of trial the trial court dismissed the appellants’ claims. Appellants’ appeal to the Court of Appeal was also dismissed.

Still dissatisfied, the appellants appeared further to the Supreme Court. Appellants’ main contentions were that the Court of Appeal did not consider their right under the 1965 Declaration thereby breaching their rights to fair hearing that the Morgan Chieftaincy Review Commission report was null and void not being the proper authority to carry out the exercise assigned to it and that the Court of Appeal was wrong in affirming the declaration of the trial court after acknowledging that the evidence at the trial was not adequately evaluated by the trial court.