Akure Land Ownership: Supreme Court Upholds Ogunmokun Family’s Ownership, Orders Eviction of Federal College of Agriculture
The Supreme Court has ordered that a part of the land being occupied by the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, belongs to the Ogunmokun family of Akure, the Ondo State capital.
In a judgment delivered last week and obtained on Wednesday by Justices Uwani Aji, Ibrahim Saulawa, Emmanuel Agim, Chidiebere Nwaoma and Abubakar Sadiq Umar, the apex court upheld earlier rulings of both the Ondo State High Court and Court of Appeal, affirming the family’s statutory of occupancy over the disputed land.
The legal dispute began when the Ogunmokun family approached the Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, seeking an order to claim the rightful ownership of the land.
Defendants in the suit included the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal College of Agriculture, the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
The high court presided over by Justice Adegboyega Adebusoye, granted the family the right of occupancy of the land.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, the government and its agencies filed an appeal to the appellate court to challenge the judgment of the lower court, but the Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the lower court.
In a unanimous decision read by Justice Fredrick Ono, the court described the appeal filed by the appellants as moribund and dismissed them accordingly with a fine of N500.000.
Also displeased with the decision of the Appeal Court, proceeded to the Supreme Court, seeking the dismissal of the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
However, the apex court, in a judgment read by Justice Aji, dismissed the notice of appeal filed by the Federal Government and its agencies.
The court held that the notice of appeal filed in April 2024 by the appellants was incompetent and was consequently struck out.
“Application filed on 4/8/2035 for an order granting leave to the appellant to amend his Notice of Appeal is hereby struck out. The motion filed 22/4/202/4 is struck out as incompetent,” the court ruled.
Reacting, the head of the Ogunmokun Family, Michael Ajayi, expressed delight over the judgment, adding that the family had started serving a notice to the affected occupants of the land to vacate.
