OGUNDARE, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The plaintiffs are farmers on Jomu farmland in Jomu village, Sagamu in Ogun State. By Gazatte Notice No. 50 Volume 23 of 14th November, 1974 the Government of the now defunct Western State of Nigeria acquired an area of land in Sagamu which included the area of land on which the plaintiffs were farming. The plaintiffs, through their Solicitor, S.O. Oyefeso Esquire submitted claims for compensation for crops and land, to the Government. The matter was referred to the Lands Tribunal which looked into the claims and recommended the amount of compensation payable to each claimant. A claim survey plan was prepared on which was marked out the name of each claimant and the area acquired from him.
Meanwhile, Ogun State was carved out of the former Western State and on the failure of the Government of that State to make to the plaintiffs payment of the amounts adjudged to each of them by the Lands Tribunal, they sought to repossess their land. …