MANSU V. ABBOYE AND ANOTHER

FRANCOIS J.A.

By his writ, the plaintiff-appellant, hereafter called the plaintiff, sought a declaration of title to his family’s land at Yarbiw in the Western Region. He pleaded that his ancestors had reduced the virgin forest into cultivation and had been in uninterrupted occupation of it until the trespass complained of.

The half-hearted attempt at a traverse of the plaintiff’s claim was exposed in the complete failure of the defence to challenge the plaintiff’s boundary neighbours who testified in his support and who claimed to be still in possession of their farms. The only witness for the defence dealt the co-defendant a lethal blow when he asserted, “The plaintiff’s land is not included in the land of the second defendant.”

The co-defendant’s case was, however, that as the Odikro of Yarbiw, he was the allodial owner of Yarbiw lands. He had also fought for the release of the lands from the State Farms Corporation which had previously acquired them compulsorily. The lands had rever…