BRETT, J.S.C. delivering the judgment
In this case the plaintiffs for themselves and for and on behalf of the Ojuwoye Community of Mushin claimed a declaration that the Community are the absolute owners under native law and custom of a piece of land off Agege Motor Road, Mushin, damages for trespass, an injunction to restrain further trespass, and possession of the land. The defendant pleaded that he became the fee simple owner of the land by virtue of a deed of com eyancc executed by certain persons who turned out also to be members of the Ojuwoye Community and that he had entered on the land, cleared it, and expended a sum of about £5,500 in erecting substantial buildings on the land without any indication of the interest of the plaintiffs on the land.
The trial judge held it proved that the Ojuwoye Community were the owners of the land and that the defendants vendors had had no authority to sell it. If the matter rested there the plaintiffs would be entitled to exercise the legal rig…