MICHAEL AKINOLA
The 35-year old legal battle over the ownership of a vast expanse of land, covering 11.370 hectares in the Igbo Esinsin, Ologunebi village in the Alimosho area of Lagos State, was on Friday finally settled as sheriffs and court bailiffs supervised the possession of the land by the owner.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the battle for the ownership of the land reportedly started in 1989, discontinued and another suit was instituted in 2006, which eventually terminated at the Supreme Court.
A Lagos High Court, presided over by Justice Atinuke Ipaye, granted an Order of Possession in favour of the Ologunebi family after the Supreme Court had struck out the notice of Appeal by Oba Sule Odu Alabe for himself and on behalf of the Odo Alabe and Ajasa family.
The High Court judge had in September 2011, in a matter with the Suit No ID/ 937/ 2006, ruled im favour of the Ologunebi family prompting the judgement debtor to seek redress at the Appeal Court and Supreme Court, where the case was withdrawn and struck out for incompetence.
Justice Atinuke Ipaye, while giving her rulling on the application for Order of Procession by the judgment creditor, emphasized that it is important that litigants must enjoy the ‘fruit of success’ of their legal contest.
The Honourable Justice ruled, “I am satisfied that the consequential order of possession sought by the judgment creditor is not only incidental to the subsisting judgment of this court, it also flows directly and naturally from the said judgement and is a natural consequence of the judgement”.
“Finally, it is trite that every Court of Law has the inherent and bounding duty to ensure that a litigant enjoys the juicy fruit of success in the legal contest.”
Justice A Ipaye alao continued, “This Court having also extracted an undertaking from the judgement creditor to the effect that execution of the judgment shall not be used as an occasion to unleash violence and mayhem on the holders of third party interest, created over the subject property in the course of litigation”.
She therefore, ruled, “A Consequential Order of this Honourable Court be and is hereby made, granting possession of all that piece / parcel of land, subject matter of this suit situate, lying and being at Igbo Esinsin Ologunebi village, Lagos State, which land is more particularly described and delineated in Survey Plan No AGB2457A dated 28th May 1980 measuring 11.370 hectares to the judgement creditor in order to give full effect to the final judgement of this honourable court delivered 29th September 2011 and affirmed by the judgement of the Court of Appeal in CA/ L/ 87M/ 2012 delivered on the 7th of July 2015”.
Counsel to the Ologunebi family, Idowu Kokumo, urged those who were affected by the judgment and the Possession Order to take advantage of the situation to ratify their interest in the properties.
He also stated that his client may take full recovery of the possession if the affected house owners fail to ratify their interests.
He said, “We are here this morning to execute the judgment of the High Court. The judgment was delivered over fifteen years ago. The Odo Alabe family appealed the judgement to the Court of Appeal and they lost”.
The lawyer also added, “A subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court was struck out for incompetence. As at today, there is not subsisting appeal over the judgement of the High Court”.
“I hope they will take advice by coming forward to ratify the ownership from the true owners of the land.”
He warned, “There will be a full recovery of the possession if they fail to ratify their ownership. The judgement is against the family that sold the land to them. It is in their own interest to come forward and ratify their ownership of the land”.