CHIEF FRANCIS ADEWALE ONAFOWOKAN V. CHIEF WASIU SHOPITAN

OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, JSC (DELIVERING THE LEADING JUDGMENT): This appeal queries the rightness of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division (hereunder addressed as "the lower court"), coram judice K. B. Akaahs, M. D. Muhammad and C. N. Uwa, JJCA, in Appeal No. CA/1/40/2006, delivered on the 3rd April, 2008. In its decision, the lower court set aside the judgment of the High Court of Ogun State (the trial court), in Suit No. HCS/22/2004, delivered on the 31St May, 2005, wherein O. O. Majekodunmi, J. non-suited the appellant. 

A precis of the material facts of the case, which transformed into the appeal, are disobedient to complexity. The appellant asserted that in 1982, he, through Pa Shopitan, purchased a parcel of land lying and being at Shagamu Road in Poolo village, Ogijo, Ogun State from the Oluye family - through the head and accredited representatives of the family. The Oluye family issued him with a purchase receipt and certificate of grant and put him in possession…