AKURE – The controversy over the right owners of some parts of the land ceded to Federal College of Agriculture, Akure may have been put to rest as the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital dismissed a suit filed by the Federal Government over the land.

Federal Government had filed an appeal against the judgment of an Akure High Court which ceded some parts of the land where the institution was located to one Ogunmokun family.

Handing down their unanimous verdict, Justices Oyebisi Folakemi Omolade, Fredrick Oziakpono Ono and Yusuf Alhaji Bashir of the appellate court upheld the lower court’s decision.

Reading the unanimous judgment, Justice Fredrick Oziakpono Ono said the appeal filed the Federal Government was moribund, and are all resolved issues raised against the government.

The Court, therefore, dismissed the appeal accordingly and fined the appellant to sum of N500,000:00 only.

In a unanimous decision read by Justice Ono described the appeal filed by the Federal Government as moribund, resolved all issues raised against the government, and dismissed them accordingly with a fine of N500.000.

It would be recalled that an Akure High Court presided over by Justice Adegboyega Adebusoye had declared that “the Ogunmokun family and members of the family are persons entitled to a statutory Right of Occupancy in respect of a piece of land situate, lying and being at Akure/Owo/Ilesha road which is known as Okutania/Ogunmokun family land which is more appropriately described in survey plan No JOE/OD/777/88 with beacon pillar Nos PBE 260 to PEB 2672, AFA 8720 and AFA 8721.

“A declaration that at no time was the said land acquired land by the Federal Government for whatever purpose and that the Federal Government can only acquire a piece of land for a public purpose and not for other purposes like selling, leasing, and alienating to any private individuals.”

The lower court further held that “the acquisition of the family land by the Federal Government in 1949 as contained in Nigeria Gazette is only limited to the area described as 685.9 acres and the boundary is limited to the description as contained in the and that the defendants cannot unilaterally expand it.”

The Federal Government was not satisfied with the lower court decision and headed to the appellate court through its lawyer, Ola Dan Olawale.

It prayed the appellate court to set aside the judgment and affirm itself(federal government) as the right owner of the land under contention.

The appellants to the matter are Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Federal College of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

The attorney to the appellants had argued that those who were sued by the family were not juristic persons and as such could not be queried by the litigants who dragged the family to court initially.

The attorney to the Ogunmokun family, Mr. Daisi Akindehin argued that since the Attorney General and Minister of Justice has been included in the suit, it has conferred jurisdict personality on the appellants.

The Court of Appeal, however, dismissed the appeal of the federal government and affirming the judgement of the lower court which ceded the parts of the land where the College of Agriculture is situated to the Ogunmokun family.