The Olokunjuwon and Umelu families, owners of the land in Alagbaka Extension of Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Sunday, insisted that landlords and owners of properties in the community allegedly trespassed on their land, despite Supreme Court judgment.

To this end, the landowners asked the hundreds of landlords and property owners in the community to vacate their land or negotiate freshly with them, if they wanted to continue staying in the community.

The PUNCH reports that the landlords and owners of land in the GRA, under the auspices of the Alagbaka Landlords Association, have kicked against the enforcement of a court order despite the pendency of an appeal at the Supreme Court.

The landlords alleged that the enforcement of the judgment of 2017 by the Olokunjuwon and Umelu families was planned to be carried out despite the order of an Akure High Court suspending the enforcement of the judgment, pending the outcome of the decision of the Supreme Court.

The chairman of the landlord association, Mr. Fred Ojo, in a statement, said the Olokunjuwon and Umelu families had pasted notices of demand on the houses of the landlords, including the private residence of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, demanding that they should come to the families for the regularisation of their land ownership.

Ojo described the action of the families as harassment and urged them to wait till the outcome of the case at the apex court ? SC/CV/1151/2022 CA/AK/105A/2017 suit No. AK/173/2012.

He also warned the judgment creditors against committing contempt of court.

However, the families stated in a statement issued on Sunday that the Supreme Court judgment had struck out the motion for leave to appeal the judgment of the lower court delivered in 2017 on the contentious land matter, which had rendered the position of the aggrieved landlords untenable.

In the statement signed by the leaders of the Olokunjuwo and Umelu families ? Prince Adegboyega Olokunjuwon, Thomas Ojo, and Prince Olusola Osore, the family said the claim by the landlords in the media that the matter was still pending at the Supreme Court was untrue and misleading.

According to the statement, a unanimous verdict delivered by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju on behalf of a five-man panel of the apex court had dismissed the application by the appellant seeking the leave of the court to appeal against the judgment of the lower court in suit number: CA/AK/105/2017, delivered in August 2022.

The statement read, ?The attempt to appeal the judgment of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court in Appeal Number: SC/CV/241/2023 by the judgment debtor was dealt a blow on the 4th April 2025, as the five-man panel of the Apex Court unanimously dismissed the said application for leave to appeal, the said application having been earlier refused by the Court of Appeal sometimes in January 2023, and stated that the judgment of the lower Court (Court of Appeal adjudging ownership of the vast parcel of land in favour of Olokunjuwon Family) is unassailable, hence an affirmation of both the High Court and the Court of Appeal in favour of the Olokunjuwon family.

?The purported members of the landlords and residents association who are the privies of the judgment debtors also made an attempt to appeal the judgment of the High Court as interested parties were truncated in limine by the Court of Appeal in referring to their appeal as ?dead on arrival? and time-wasting as the fatal attraction and the consequential malady foist on them was their failure to follow the requirement of the law, leading to the ultimate death of their appeal.

?The so-called members of landlords and residents? association and their vendors having been declared trespassers by the court and remain trespassers and like every other person under the sun, the members of the resident association and their vendors are bound by the decision of the Supreme Court in appeal No: SC/CV/241/2023.

?The subject matter and issue of ownership and possessory right of the Olokunjuwon family of Umelu community on the vast parcel of land has already been finally laid to rest by the apex court on the 4th day of April 202.

?The so-called members of the landlord and resident association should not insist on carrying oxygen around the coffin. Moreso, the said Appeal Number: SC/CV/1151/2022 pending at the Supreme Court, which is currently being used as a shield by these so-called landlords and residents? associations does not relate to the issue and subject matter of ownership and possession of the land already adjourned in favour of the Olokunjuwon family of Umelu Community.?

The families asked the public to disregard the judgment appeal claim by the landlords, insisting status quo remained on the land. (The PUNCH)

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