MUKHTAR JSC (Delivering the Lead Judgment): As per the writ of summons taken out by the plaintiffs in the High Court of Justice of Lagos State, the plaintiffs claimed the following reliefs:
(i) “A declaration that the hereditaments situate at and known as No. 24, Onisemo Street, Lagos, is the family property under Yoruba native law and custom of the defendants of Ajegun Bashua (deceased).
(ii) Possession of such portion of the said hereditaments as are in the possession or control of the defendants or any of them.
(iii) And an account of all rents and profits collected by the defendants from tenants on the said hereditaments and payments of the said rents and profits to the plaintiffs. Annual rental value is N50.00k (fifty naira).”
Learned counsel exchanged their pleadings, and the pleadings went through series of amendments.
Briefly, the case of the plaintiffs is that they are the only surviving principal descendants of the family of late Ajegun Bashua who originally owned the land in …