ONIKOYI CHIEFTAINCY FAMILY V. CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT

POLICY AND PRACTICE LAW REPORTS, 2PLR

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ONIKOYI CHIEFTAINCY FAMILY

V.

CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT

JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL

THE 19TH DAY DECEMBER, 1944

PRIVY COUNCIL APPEAL NO. 10 OF 1943

2PLR/1944/56 (P.C.)

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OTHER CITATION(S)

2PLR/1944/56 (P.C.)

(1944) P. C. 10/1943

(1944) X WACA PP. 10 – 13

LEX (1944) – P. C. 10/1943

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BEFORE THEIR LORDSHIPS:

LORD THANKERTON

LORD MACMILLAN

LORD SIMONDS

SIR MADHAVAN NAIR

SIR JOHN BEAUMONT

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BETWEEN:

ONIKOYI CHIEFTAINCY FAMILY – Appellants

AND

CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT – Respondent

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ORIGINATING COURT(S)

FROM THE WEST AFRICAN COURT OF APPEAL AFFIRMING THE JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

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CASE SUMMARY

The application arose from appellants claim that they were entitled to part of compensation payable for public acquisition to certain land which their family had granted by way of gift to the Crown to achieve a certain public purpose. The appellants put their case in alternative ways, claiming in the first place that the gift to Governor Glover, was not an outright gift, but made for the limited purpose of providing farming land for Hausa ex-soldiers, and that the purpose of this gift having become exhausted on the death of the last of those ex-soldiers, the land reverted to their family. However, their application were opposed by other grantees who traced their titles to the Crown (consequent upon the Deed of Gift) whereupon the Crown purportedly conveyed an absolute interest to the grantees and the land making them entitled to the relevant compensation.

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DECISION OF THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL

1.     From and after the date of the Ordinance owners of Crown grants approved under the Ordinance acquired an indefeasible title to the land covered by their grants.

2.     The appellants had no interest in the land to be compulsorily acquired.

3.       The language of the Ordinance, and particularly of section 7, does not admit of any doubt: the enactment must take effect according to its terms. If land was situate within the prescribed limits, then from the date of the Ordinance it belonged either to claimants who established their title or, failing such persons, to the Crown.

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