By Chuks Eke
Barely 22 years after a protracted legal fireworks over the ownership of some parcels of land at Odouzuzu and Nkputankpu lands situate at Ire Village Obosi in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, the State High Court sitting at Ogidi in Idemili Judicial Division, presided over by Justice I. U. Ndigwe, has declared that Chief Gilbert Ebelechukwu Obi, an Onitsha-based business mogul and Chairman, Board of Trustees of Nigerian Importers Association, is the bona fide owner of the aforementioned parcels of land.
The declaration, according to the court, was based on its conviction that the credible evidence adduced by the plaintiff’s prosecution witnesses and documentary evidence tendered by the plaintiff were enough to prove that he acquired the parcels of land legally from the Odouzuzu and Nkputankpu landowners and, as such, has a right of possession of the lands.
In Suit No. HID/129/2004 filed against three sets of defendants, Obi, the plaintiff is claiming that he legally acquired the land from Obiokwu and Umuagu families of Ire Village, Obosi.
Among the first set of defendants dragged to the court are Ebuka Obidozie, Chukwudi Ukpabi, Chinedu Okafor, Uchenna Obiokwu, Obunike Obiokwu and John White, while the second set of defendants are Chukwunwe Ibenwa, Barrister Michael Ogodi Chidebe, Okwudili Okeke, Nnamdi Onuekwe, Onyekwelu Anyaneto and Degaulle Offor for themselves and as representing members of Umuagu family of Umudejilo Kindred, Ire Village, Obosi, just as the third set of defendants are Chukwuma Okoloudo, Kenneth Ani, Johnson Enyi and Augustine Chibueze for themselves and as representatives of the Nkputankpu/Ogbomme Landlords Association, Obosi.
The plaintiff is seeking, among others, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the three sets of defendants and their agents from interfering with, tampering with, or doing anything prejudicial and/or inconsistent with his rights or use of the above-recited pieces or parcels of land shown in survey plan No. EP/AN/1377/83, plan No. EP/AN/1381/83 and plan No. FALS/MISC/AN 210/96, as well as the 69 plots of land of about 30496.601 square meters sold to him by the Umuagu family of Obosi.
The plaintiff is also claiming from the defendants jointly and severally a sum of N60 million, out of which N30 million is for special damages, N20 million as cost of replacing the concrete survey beacons, walls, fence, and allied damages on the land, as well as N10 million as general damages.
The second set of defendants, in their further amended statement of defence, counter-claimed against the first and third sets of defendants that the portions of Nkputankpu land in dispute were the bona fide property of Umuagu family of Umudejilo Kindred, Ire Village, Obosi, except the 28 plots and 69 plots sold to the plaintiff by Umuagu family and portions allocated to members of Umuagu family by the family.
The second set of defendants therefore counter-claimed that they are entitled to the statutory right of occupancy over and concerning the Nkputankpu land excluding the 28 plots and 69 plots sold to the plaintiff as shown in their own dispute survey plan.
The first and third sets of the defendants also filed their own joint further amended statement of defence and counterclaim against the plaintiff, claiming the sum of N1 million as damages against the plaintiff.
During the trial period, the plaintiff called five witnesses who testified in his favour as PW1 to PW5, while the first and third sets of defendants called 4 witnesses who testified in their favour as DW1 to DW4, just as the second set of the defendants called one witness who also testified as DW5.
But in his judgment, Justice Ndigwe held that Obi is indeed the holder of a Customary Rights of Occupancy Certificate issued on August 13, 1986 by the then Idemili Local Government and registered as instrument No. 14 at page 14 in volume 1185 of the Deeds Registrar in the Lands Registry in the office then at Enugu and now at Awka.
Justice Ndigwe also held that while the plaintiff adduced credible evidence in support of his case that he purchased the lands in dispute from Obiokwu family represented by Daniel and Godwin Obiokwu in 1978 and from Umuagu family respectively, while the counter-claim of the third defendant with the reliefs thereto fails and accordingly dismissed.
According to the judge, the Deeds Registrar was done in respect of all that piece or parcel of land lying, being and situate at and called Odouzuzu land, Ire Village, Obosi now in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State measuring approximately 2926.499 square meters in area and as such the plaintiff is entitled to apply and obtain a Statutory Right of Occupancy Certificate and or apply for the conversion of the above recited Customary Right of Occupancy Certificate to a Statutory Right of Occupancy of above recited land the dimension, size and abuttal of which is contained in the Survey Plan No. EP/AN/1377/83 used in obtaining the Customary Right of Occupancy afore-recited and in the further litigation survey plan filed together with the Statement of Claim in this suit.
