Ogun Court cancels judgment concerning 215-acre family property
Ogun Court cancels judgment concerning 215-acre family property.
Justice M. A. Akinyemi of the Ogun State High Court, sitting in Sagamu, has annulled a previous judgment concerning a 215-acre property owned by the Ogbodu Ogunfowomu family of Ilara Remo in Remo North Local Government Area.
The original ruling, issued on October 6, 2022, was reportedly obtained without the presence of the claimant, Alhaji Isiaka Gbadamosi, and included settlement terms that he allegedly neither approved nor signed.
The development followed Suit No. HCS/603/2022, filed by Gbadamosi through his lawyer, Tunde Ologunde, against Pa Yisau Awolaja, Mr. Segun Awodipe, Talubi Gbadamosi, Mr. Olumide Akintoye, Mr. Muritala Salami, and five others in connection with the contested court judgment.
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According to a Certified True Copy of the judgment delivered on July 11, Alhaji Gbadamosi informed the court that he, his late brother Mr. Rasheed Awolaja, and others had, in 2017, filed Suit No. HCS/236/2017 at the Sagamu High Court regarding their family land.
Gbadamosi stated that the case was adjourned in 2022 to October 26, yet a judgment was delivered on October 6, 2022, in the absence of himself, his late brother, and their lawyer, Barr Tunde Ologunde, who was at the Court of Appeal in Ibadan and had notified the court in writing of his absence. He alleged that the judgment was based on an out-of-court settlement that neither he nor his brother had signed, and that it was obtained through concealment and fraud.
Following the ruling, Gbadamosi claimed, some defendants began demarcating and selling portions of the family land. In an amended originating summons dated October 16, 2024, he asked the court to declare that “the judgment obtained by the defendants in Suit No. HCS/236/2017, delivered on October 6, 2022, was obtained by mistake, concealment of facts, and fraudulent misrepresentation.”
He is seeking an order to:
1. Set aside the High Court judgment in Suit No. HCS/236/2017 (Pa Yisau Awolaja & Ors vs. Pastor Taiwo Adeyiga & Ors) delivered on October 6, 2022, which was based on undated and unsigned settlement terms filed on June 23, 2022.
2. Prevent any partitioning, sale, disposal, grant, or transfer of the disputed land by any party pursuant to the consent judgment of October 6, 2022.
In delivering his judgment, Justice Akinyemi stated that after reviewing all the facts, he found that the judgment had been obtained through concealment, misrepresentation, and fraud. Addressing issue (3) raised by the claimant, he held that the claimant was entitled to the relief sought.
