KEKERE-EKUN JCA (DELIVERING THE LEAD JUDGMENT): This is an interlocutory appeal against the ruling of the High Court of Oyo State, Ibadan Judicial Division delivered on 25 June 2002.
The facts that gave rise to the appeal, as can be gathered from the briefs of argument of the parties and the record of proceedings are as follows:
Sometime in 1976, one Chief Tewogbade (now deceased) on behalf of the 2nd appellant, (2nd defendant in the court below), Tewogbade and Sons Ltd. approached the head of the respondents’ Oni Abobodimu family for the purchase of a parcel of land for the sum of ₦20,000.00 (twenty thousand naira). The said Chief Tewogbade paid ₦5,000.00 (five thousand naira) with a promise to pay the balance of ₦15,000.00 (fifteen thousand naira). He was let into possession of the land. However up to the time of his death the balance was not paid despite repeated demands. Consequently, the respondents (plaintiffs at the court below) sold a substantial portion of the land originall…