A legal practitioner, Mr Femi Emodamori has on behalf of Elemo of Igoba Family demanded Immediate Retraction of a alleged False and Misleading Claim by Oba Adinlewa Adeniyi, the Obalogun of Igoba over a Court Judgment on Elemo Igoba Family Ownership Of Land at Imolumo and Aleo Igoba.
Below is the full text of the letter;
DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE RETRACTION OF YOUR FALSE AND MISLEADING CLAIM THAT A COURT JUDGMENT STRIPPED ELEMO IGOBA FAMILY OF OWNERSHIP OF LAND AT IMOLUMO AND ALEO IGOBA AND AWARDED SAME TO YOU
We are attorneys to the Elemo of Igoba Family, Igoba, Akure North Local Government Area, Ondo State, represented by Elder Peter Akomolafe (Elemo Igoba Family Head), Mr. Oluwatope Ogunlade, Mr. Oluyimide Adejugbe and Chief Seun Balogun who are hereinafter collectively referred to as “our clients”.
According to our clients, you are fully aware that their Elemo Igoba Family owns the vast expanse of land measuring 494.415 Hectares at Imolumo and Aleo, Igoba, and that their title to the land had been affirmed in several judgments of the Ondo State High Court and the Court of Appeal, including:
The judgment of the Ondo State High Court in Suit AK/289/2012: Hon. A.W Olokunboro & Anor (For themselves and on behalf of the Elemo of Igoba Chieftaincy Family) Versus Oba S. Ojo Jayeoba delivered by Hon. Justice A.O Adegbehingbe (now Justice of the Court of Appeal) on 17th February, 2014;
The Consent Judgment of the Ondo State High Court in Suit No. AK/384/2012: Chief Akin William Olokunboro & 4 Ors (For themselves and on behalf of members of Elemo Family of Igoba, Akure North Local Government Area) versus Osi Community (represented by Chief Falowo and Chief Famugbode Ilesanmi as the 2nd and 3rd Defendants in the case), delivered by Hon. Justice Olasehinde Kumuyi (then Chief Judge of Ondo State) on 3rd March, 2014, wherein Osi Community unequivocally admitted that they are customary tenants of Elemo Igoba Family.
The final Judgment of the Ondo State High Court in the same Suit No. AK/384/2012, delivered by the same Hon. Justice Olasehinde Kumuyi on 1st November, 2016, wherein the Court held that the land had not been partitioned and still remained the joint property of Elemo Igoba Family.
The judgment of the Court of Appeal in Appeal Number CA/AK/46/2017: Chief Akin William Olokunboro & 3 others versus Aderemi Adelana & Another, delivered on 25/6/2021, wherein the Court of Appeal held that Mrs. Moji Adelana, though a member of our clients’ Elemo Igoba Family, had no right to carry out the layout of any part of the land in her personal name or claim personal title over any portion of it, being the joint Elemo Family property which had not been partitioned or shared.
The judgment of the Ondo State High Court in Suit AK/224/2014: Chief Akin William Olokunboro & Another (For themselves and on behalf of Elemo Family of Igoba) versus Wesco Akinwale & 9 Others, delivered on 24th March, 2016, by Hon. Justice A.O Odusola (now the Chief Judge of Ondo State).
Our client stated that before you were installed as the Obalogun (Traditional Ruler) of Igoba, you even wrote them, as an acclaimed member of another renowned Family in Igoba called Odofin Family, to passionately beg for their moral and material support, in consideration of which they (our clients) gave you some plots of the same land free of charge. The document evidencing the fact that the land was gifted gift is, however, still with our clients.
Regrettably, our clients said, as soon as you were installed as the Obalogun of Igoba, you began conniving with some land racketeers to fraudulently sell other parts of their land, and that prompted our clients to join you as a party to a fresh Suit No. AK/239/2018 which our clients instituted at the Ondo State High Court. As part of your defence to the Suit, according to our clients, you (falsely) claimed to be related to Mrs. Moji Adelana (another member of our clients’ Family) and that you derived title to some portions of the land which you were illegally occupying from her.
The High Court, however, declared you a trespasser to the land and ordered, amongst other things, that you should pay N5,000,000 damages to our clients, consequent upon which you filed an Appeal No. CA/AK/18/2021 to the Court of Appeal.
Interestingly, the Court of Appeal delivered its judgment on 25th April, 2025 to the effect that since you established at the trial Court that you were related to Moji Adelana and derived your title to the land from her, then you were her privy in law and that the judgment between our clients’ Elemo Igoba Family and the said Moji Adelana is equally binding on you, making it unnecessary and/or improper for our clients to even institute the fresh Suit against you, because the issue of ownership raised in the fresh case was res judicata- that is, it had already been decided in the previous case against Moji Adelana.
You therefore know, or reasonably ought to know, that the effect of the Court of Appeal judgment delivered on 25th April, 2025, in Appeal No. CA/AK/18/2021, is that its previous judgment in Appeal No. CA/AK/46/2017, which declared that Moji Adelana could not claim personal title to any part of the Elemo Igoba Family land (and by implication could not transfer any title) since the land has not been shared or partitioned, is binding on you by claiming that you derived title to the land from the said Moji Adelana. In other words, the land still remains the collective Elemo Igoba Family land under the headship of Elder Peter Akomolafe.
Our clients stated that to their utmost shock, immediately after the Court of Appeal judgment, you sent traditional town criers out in Igoba town to announce that the Court of Appeal had stripped our clients’ Elemo Igoba Family of title to the land and declared you as the owner, when you knew, or you were reasonably expected to know, that the Court never said so.
You also sponsored radio jingles to make the same dubious claims, thereby prompting our clients to issue a comprehensive and well circulated press statement dated 4th June, 2025, explaining the mischief behind your false and phantom claims. A copy of the press statement is attached hereto as Annexure A, for the records.
Our clients stated that rather than towing the path of honour after their press statement, you sponsored a ‘counter’ press publication in some online media, including “Path News Magazine”, carrying your bold picture and making reference to our clients’ earlier press statement, wherein you still claimed, amongst other things, that “…with the latest judgment of the court of Appeal, Peter Akomolafe and his cohorts don’t have any land in Igoba anymore…The false claim of Peter Akomolafe and his cohorts over the land at Imolumo and Aleo in the face of the judgment of the Court of Appeal is mischievous and misleading. And the whole public should be aware and be careful with them.”
From our brief, your assertions that our clients have no land at Imolumo and Aleo (in Igoba) anymore and that “the whole public should be aware and be careful with them”, constitute the tort of injurious falsehoods calculated to scare and prevent members of the public from relating with our clients for the purpose of purchasing, investing in, and/or developing the massive expanse of land, and indeed, many of the potential land purchasers and investors hitherto rightly dealing with our clients in respect of the land have since withdrawn.
You would also agree that your false, phantom, baseless, reckless and grossly irresponsible claims in the publications that our clients no longer have land at Imolumo and Aleo, Igoba, have seriously defamed their character as people laying false and fraudulent claim of ownership to the land, whereas you are actually the one making such deliberate false and fraudulent claim of ownership of the land and even had the audacity to garnish your fraudulent claims with reference to a Court of Appeal Judgment that never (and we repeat- never) said anything supporting your false claim.
Consequently, our clients demand that you should retract your false, economically injurious and libelous statements or claims that they no longer have land at Imolumo and Aleo, Igoba and that the Court has declared you owner of the land, within Seventy-Two (72) hours from the date of this letter, in at least one National Newspapers, 2 Ondo State based radio stations of your choice, and at least one major and credible online news platform based in Ondo State, preferably the Sunshine Truth Platform.
TAKE NOTICE that if you fail to comply with the above demands of our clients, we shall, without further notice, activate their further instruction to institute an action against you in a court of law to seek appropriate monetary damages against you for the tort of injurious falsehood and/or defamation of character.
Yours faithfully,
Femi Emmanuel Emodamori
