Land Tussle: Parties Take Case To Supreme Court

The ongoing dispute over some land at Old Olowora Road, Isheri-oke, Lagos State, between two families, the Ikumoworo family and the Olofin family, have been moved to the Supreme Court.

Not satisfied with a judgment delivered by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, which on March 16, 2022, upturned the judgment delivered by Justice Yetunde Idowu of the state high court in favour of Princess Josephine Momoh, the IKumoworo family, through its lawyers, has filed an appeal at the apex court to contest the judgment.

The Ikumoworo family comprises the Onikosi, Onikoro and Oshorun families. Josephine Momoh, the claimant, is an agent of the Ikumoworoo family, and she’s suing as an attorney for the family.

Momoh, in his grounds of appeal, stated that “the court erred in law when they held that the testimony of the appellant on the definitive history of the Ikumoworo family was very porous and inconclusive because neither PW2 nor PW4 testified on the details of intervening owners through whom they claimed the land. And thereby came to a perverse decision occasioning a severe miscarriage of justice to the appellant.

“The pleadings and evidence of PW2 and PW4 agree that their progenitor was Ikumoworo and that he deforested a large portion of land, including the land in dispute. The evidence of subsequent or intervening owners of part of the land in dispute cannot override or be superior to the evidence given by the first settler and founder of the large parcel of land, including the land in dispute.

The Appellant in the trial court gave evidence of the children of Ikumoworo, which the land in dispute devolved jointly by way of inheritance under Yoruba Native Law and custom.

“Therefore, the Justices of the Court below did not properly evaluate the evidence of the traditional history of the family as the owner of the land in dispute. The Court of Appeal erred in law when on page 30 of their judgment, relied on the judgments tendered as Exhibit N, 0, 01 & Y to find in favour of the respondents as the owner of the land in dispute and thereby came to a perverse decision occasioning a serious miscarriage of justice to the appellant,” the claimant said.

Justice Idowu of Lagos High Court had on July 16, 2009, delivered a judgment in the suit no: ID/1664/1999 filed by Princess Josephine Momoh against Oba Nurudeen Adekanbi, the Olofin of Isheri for himself and on behalf of Olofin family restrained them from trespassing on the disputed land.