JUDGMENT OF THE LORDS OF THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL, DELIVERED THE 16TH JULY, 1936.
In this case the plaintiffs (the respondents) by an action commenced on the 16th August, 1927, sought against the defendant Sakariyawo, Chief Oshodi, as head and representative of the family of Chief Oshodi Tappa, deceased, a declaration that the plaintiffs are owners in fee simple of the property lying and being at No. 16, Ajia Ijesha Court, Oshodi Street, Lagos, Nigeria. There was no counterclaim and the defendant was content to admit that he claimed the property on behalf of himself and as head and representative of the said family and to deny the title of the plaintiffs on whom the onus of establishing the alleged title must rest. The original defendant is now dead and the family is represented by Disu Akinyemi Oshodi the present appellant.
The main fads are not in dispute and may be shortly stated.
The territory of Lagos was ceded to the British Crown in 1861; . but the cession did not affect the character of the private native rights over the land which remained as they. were before the cession. Oshodi Tappa, the then head of the Oshodi family, had been exiled from Lagos. In 1862 he and other exiles were allowed to return, and it appears that certain vacant lands at Epetedo, including that now in dispute, were granted to him as family lands. He divided the lands at Epetedo into 21 compounds, appointed a head (who was at that date a slave and who became when slavery was abolished an arota or domestic) to each compound, reserving a compound for his personal use. In 1869 the Government issued a series of Crown grants absolute in form to the various heads of the compounds so appointed by Oshodi Tappa. These compounds have been the subject of litigation in Courts of Lagos only too frequently, and two of the cases have corne before this Board. In the first (Sakariyawo Oshodi v. Moriamo Dakolo [1930] A.C. 667) the nature and legal effects of the Crown grants are considered: in the second (ldewu lnasa v. Sakariyawo Oshodi [1934] A.C. 99) the compounds and the status and position of their occupants are more fully described. No useful purpose would be served by repeating what was said by Lord Dunedin or by Lord Blanesburgh in delivering the judgments of their Lordships in these cases, and in stating in general terms the position and title according to native law and custom of their occupants. It is sufficient for the present purpose to say that a headman
