CHIEF MARK OLUGBEMI OBADA & ORS. V. MILITARY GOVERNOR OF KWARA STATE & ORS.

BELGORE, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The plaintiffs in the trial court are the appellants here as they were in the Court of Appeal, Kaduna branch. They all come from a village called Ponyan, then in Kwara State but now in Kogi State. Their complaint is that they have three ruling house who in rotation supply the Chief (Oba) of the town. The ruling houses, according to them, are ILARO, OTUN AND ODO-OJA. The first two had supplied the last two Chiefs and it was then the turn of Odo-Oja to nominate a Chief and that the kingmakers, who the then appellants claim to be, nominated one D. L. Obasa as Oba of Ponyan. This name, as a formality was forwarded to Kwara State Government for approval. But contrary to this advice to Government, the "first and second defendants" appointed the third respondent. Chief Ezekiel Omoboye Omopariola as Oba of Ponyan by Edict No. 2 of 1988, an Edict the plaintiffs claim to be aware of only in Court at Lokoja on 23rd March, 1988. As a result the plai…