The Registered Trustees of the Victorious Army Ministries International has filed an appeal against the judgment of the Lagos State High Court, which held that the church encroached on a piece of land located on Acme Crescent, in the Ikeja area of the state.
The church is urging the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal to restore their rights of possession of the land because the lower court judge, Justice Gbadebo Oshoala, erred in law in giving judgment in favour of the claimants in the case. The church is also urging the appellate court to nullify the judgment in favour of the claimant because the verdict was not supported by evidence.
The claimants in the suit marked ID/1097/16 are Alhaji Mufutau Ashade and Prince Olabisi Ashade, who sued for themselves as the Principal and on behalf of the Ashade Royal family of Ogba, Lagos State.
Justice Oshoala had, in his judgment, held that the evidence presented before the court by the claimants is compelling, credible and conclusive, and that is, therefore, sufficient to sustain their assertion of ownership of the land in dispute.
He, therefore, granted the claimants an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, servants, agents, privies, assigns, representatives and/or whatsoever derived from them from trespassing or further trespass on the claimants’ land located at Plot 9, Acmé Crescent, off Acme Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos State.
The judge further granted the claimants an order of possession of land in dispute. But the church had argued in its statement of claim that the claimants are land speculators, shopping for undeserved justice and that they cannot identify the land nor do they know the dimension of the land in dispute because they have never had the possession of the land.
The church had also informed the court that they bought the land in dispute measuring 6403.784 square meters and registered with Certificate of Occupancy No 55/55/2003N from one Olufemi Akiyode, who put them in possession in 2008 and handed over the original certificate of occupancy to them.
The defendant had also claimed that Olufemi Akiyode, the predecessor-in-title of the land, derived his title through his late mother, Mrs Oshodi. The church had also maintained that there was a time when the Lagos State Government acquired vast acres of land, the subject matter of this suit inclusive, and the predecessor-in-title challenged the acquisition and that Justice Ayo Philips (retd) gave judgment in his favour.
It also stated that by the judgment, the Certificate of Occupancy No 55/55/2003, dated July 23, 2007, was issued and that the other parties in the suit never appealed the verdict. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.