RABIATU ADEBAYO WOSILATU M OMODU M ULIKATU IBRAHIM ABDUL-WAHAB V. RASHEED SHOGO IDRIS LEGBO KUTIGI JSC (PRESIDED) ALOYSIUS IYORGYER KATSINA-ALU JSC UMARU ATU KALGO JSC IGNATIUS C. PATS-ACHOLONU JSC (READ THE LEAD JUDGMENT) GEORGE ADESOLA OGUNTADE JSC

PATS-ACHOLONU JSC (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The dispute over a land or incidences of land ownership in the history of Nigerian jurisprudence and literature in land law, has been largely the cause of anxieties and stress and many have gone to the grave prematurely, in battling over land matters, some no more than inanities. The appellants had instituted an action in the High Court at Offa in Kwara State and claimed a declaration that they are part owners of shops/ stores situate at Adeleke Road, Owode Market, Offa per the stirpes system of inheritance, and also an order of accounts. Their case is that the land was the property of their father, one Pa Williams and that they the appellants, the respondent’s mother and his grandmother, all contributed money for the erection of the structure thereon. They averred that they delegated the respondent to supervise the building and thereafter collect rents from the shops but the respondent was collecting the rent for himself only. The r…