Landlords and owners of land in the Government Reserved Area (GRA) of Alagbaka Extension in Akure, the Ondo State capital, have kicked against the enforcement of the court order despite the pendency of an appeal at the Supreme Court.
The landlords said the Olokunjuwon family’s enforcement of the 2017 judgment was despite an order of an Akure High Court suspending the enforcement of the judgment pending the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Supreme Court has fixed March 27, 2027, for the hearing of the application filed by Olusola Aladesuyi, Tunde Oyinloye, and Olusegun Adu-Peters for themselves and on behalf of owners and landlords of Alagbaka GRA extension seeking to join the suit on the dispute Olokunjuwon and Elekumo Family Land.
Also, the landlords have been granted an order by an Akure High Court to halt the implementation of the warrant of possession issued in January 2023 pending the Supreme Court’s determination of the case.
Pointedly, Justice Adegboyega Adebusoye said granting a stay of execution and a warrant of possession was to ensure that the hierarchy of the court system is not ridiculed or brought into public odium.
Despite the pendency of the suit at the apex court and order for a stay of execution, the landlords said Olokunjuwon and Umelu families have written to them to regularise the ownership of the land on which they built their houses.
The Chairman of the Landlords Association, Mr Fred Ojo, said the Olokunjuwon and Umelu families have also pasted notices of demand on the landlords’ houses, including Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s private house, demanding that they come to the families for the regularisation of their land ownership.
The landlords described the action of the Olokunjuwon family as harassment, warning them against overreaching the likely outcome of the case at the apex court and committing contempt of court.
In a statement, the Association argued that the matter involving Landlords as interested parties against the families is still pending in the Supreme Court in SC/CV/1151/2022 CA/AK/105A/2017 suit No. AK/173/2012.
The Association alleged that O.V. Omotayo was the signatory to the poster on various gates and houses, including Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s personal house.
The association described the pasting of posters demanding the regularisation of land purchase as contempt of court and a criminal attempt to short-change the judicial process.
Ojo said, “The stay of execution granted by the state High Court is in respect of the Appeal at Supreme Court in SC/CV/1151/2022, which is still pending in the Supreme Court”.
“The stay of execution granted to the Owners and Residents by Justice Adebusoye is still subsisting until the determination of the Supreme Court case adjourned to March 2027.
“It is a global judicial practice that once a matter is before a supreme court, no execution from a lower court can be carried out until it is disposed of”.
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