Issues surrounding Agamo land in Ekiti resolved

The controversy surrounding the true ownership of Agamo land in Iludun-Ekiti has been resolved as an Ekiti State High Court, Ido Ekiti Judicial Division, ruled that the land actually belongs to the community and not individuals or groups.

Delivering judgment in suit No. HID/8/2017 filed by Rev. David Adeosun and five others on behalf of themselves and their families against the Owa of Iludun Ekiti, Oba Kayode Akinola, and three others over the ownership of Agamo, Justice A.A. Adeleye, held that the title to Agamo land is vested in the whole Iludun community.

The community on Wednesday stated that the content of the judgment delivered on February 7, 2019, became imperative for the people of the area to know.

Justice Adeleye ruled, “I find as a fact that the claimants are not the first settlers at Agamo and therefore not owners of the land in dispute. Agamo belongs to the Iludun indigenes as a communal land since the land has not been partitioned. This is a fact pleaded, and led in evidence by the counter-claimants, but not disproven by the defendants.

“Consequently, a reigning Owa of Iludun is entrusted with the management custody, control and supervision of the Agamo farmland in conjunction with other principal or prominent indigenes of the town for the benefit of the entire community,” the judge held.

The applicants had in the suit filed on June 28, 2017 sought among others “a declaration that Agamo farmland belongs to Oke Iludun Quarter under the headship of Joseph Adeosun and Daniel Kolawole families,” seeking declaration as null and void sale of Agamo and other farmlands amounting to 100 hectares belonging to the applicants but sold by the defendants.

Credit: Independent