OKUNOLA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal against the judgment of the Sokoto State Sharia Court of Appeal holden at Sokoto wherein the earlier decision of the Gwadabawa Upper Area Court was affirmed.
The facts of this case briefly put were as follows:
The respondent herein as plaintiff sued the appellants herein as defendants claiming her late father's farmlands left as trust with the District Head when he was embarking on a journey on the condition that when he returned from the journey he would take back the farmlands but if he should die same should be returned to his heirs.
In the end, the father of the plaintiff/respondent died and he did not return. The appellants herein were in possession of the farmlands.
When the plaintiff/respondent requested for the farmlands which formed the estates of her late father, the appellants herein refused to return the farmlands claiming that they were allocated same by the District Head, hence this suit. The plaintiff…