An Ogun State High Court sitting in Ota Division has delivered a judgment in favour of the Magbadelo family over the ownership of Akinbo Village in Ewekoro Local Government Area of the state.
The claimants, Chief Jonathan Akintona, Nojeem Magbadelo and Lamidi Magbadelo, had in a suit numbered HCT/ 212/2010 instituted against Lafarge Cement Africa and 20 others, approached the court over the ownership of a land measuring 353,412 hectares with Survey No. OG/276/2012/092 dated September 27, 2012.
The family through its counsel, Mr. Abayomi Omoyinmi, filed a motion of ex-parte for the judgment seeking an order of the court to grant the applicants the possession of the land,.
He also sought the order for the enforcement of the judgment for the declaration of title of land in favour of the applicants in the suit as delivered against the cement company sometimes in February.
One of the claimants, Nojeem Magbadelo, in an 11-page affidavit in support of the motion ex-parte , said that the cement company had been in possession of the large expanse of land despite the judgment in suit HCT 212/2010, which was not appealed against to its benefits.
He said that the cement company failed to file any appearance or defence in the case, until judgment was delivered in the matter.
The prayers of the applicants before the court were based on three issues in a Writ of Possession filed by counsel to the applicants, Mr. Abayomi Omoyinmi, that the court should grant the applicants possession of the land for giving effect to and enforcing the judgment for declaration of the title of land in favour of the applicants as delivered against Lafarge company on February, 11,2016.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Ademola Bakre (Jnr), in his judgment on the issue as delivered on February 11, upheld the submission of the claimants on the claim that the land in question belonged to them.
He said that the claimants proved beyond reasonable doubt that the land belonged to them and disagreed with the arguments of the defence as regards a judgment of an Ake Native Court, which refers to the land in question as Akibo as opposed to Akinbo.
