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From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The Ogun State High Court, Sagamu has set aside the execution of an earlier judgment of the court which ceded over 4,500 hectares of land belonging to about 14 Sagamu communities to Oso-Edu Family, represented by Oniraniken of Iraniken, Sagamu, Oba Adewale Adeniji, Chief Nurudeen Sanni as well as Prince Segun Ogunkoya.
Some of the affected communities are Okerala, Igbo Iwaju, Torogun, Simawa, Ajebo, Ewu Ogundipe, Ewu Ololo, Alahun, Apena Seriki and Erungben, among others.
Oba Adewale Adeniji and others, in a suit marked HCS/27/2015, had taken possession of the vast land, citing a court judgement delivered by Justice A.A. Babawale on April 18, 2018.
Fasasi Tiamiyu, Olalekan Sulaimon, Saula Oseni and others, however, in June of 2020, filed an application before the High Court, demanding, among other reliefs, an order setting aside the execution of the April 18, 2018 judgement.
Tiamiyu and others, in the certified true copies of the judgement sighted by Daily Sun, said they were not parties to the suit leading to the award of the judgement, until they got to know about the judgement and subsequent execution.
The applicants equally, among other things, said that the claimants, led by the traditional rulers, were not known to the communities who own the hectares of land, adding that they were nothing short of land grabbers.
While delivering his judgment, Justice Tajudeen Okunsokan dismissed the respondents’ objection to the suit on the ground that the applicants lacked the locus standi, stressing that the affidavits deposed to in support of the application evidently established that the applicants have what it takes to institute the court action.
Justice Okunsokan, among other things, also held that inasmuch as the facts of the application had supported that the applicants were not privy or part of the suit leading to the earlier judgment on the land, the action was not binding on the applicants.
He said: “The judgement in suit No HCS/27/2015 is, therefore, binding on the parties, thereto, and their privies alone and, as such, not binding on the applicants for which reason it should not have been enforced on the parcels of land in possession of the applicant.”
He, thereafter, set aside the execution of the judgement delivered on April 18, 2018 levied on the applicants’ communities land and residences.
Makun Kingdom, Sagamu, which claimed to be the owner of communities where the hectares of land are situated had been at loggerheads with Iraniken community for almost two years over the land.
