MUNTAKA-COOMASSIE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal by the appellant against the decision of the Sharia Court of Appeal Kano hereinafter called the court below - which allowed the appeal and ordered that the implications of failure to take Oath when offered by the court should be clearly explained to the parties.
This matter started in the Upper Area Court No.4 Yankaba where the present respondent sued the appellant, Danjuma mai Adamu Yankaba to recover a farmland in possession of the appellant for the past 45 years. In fact the other two female plaintiffs jointly claimed some other farms from the appellant which were similarly in the possession of the appellant for such a long period.
The appellant as defendant refuted the allegations of the respondents and partially claimed a portion of the land given to his father by one Ali who owns the land. That gift was about sixty years old. And he claimed to have bought the rest. This appeal appeared to be simple. …