The High Court of Ondo State sitting at Okitipupa, has resolved a 106 year old land dispute in Igbokoda, in Ilaje council area of the State. In Suit N0 HOK/51/2019 filed by Oloja Juwon Semudara who is a legal practitioner, the Claimant sued Benjamin Olomidegun a businessman over dredging works in the area, claiming that the piece of land at Kofawe was sold to him by the Apoi people while the latter was in court with the Igbokoda/Mahin/Ilaje community over the ownership of the land.
He further claimed that the land which was surveyed by him was later conveyed to him and the victorious Igbokoda/Mahin/ community by Agreement dated 19th January 1995, by the Attorneys of the Attorneys of the Igbokoda/ Mahin/ Ilaje community who won the case at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court consequent upon which the Amapetu of Mahin appointed him the head, (Oloja) of Kofawe.
However, the Olu (Oba) of Igbokoda, who through his counsel, Chief Sola Ebiseni, applied to join the suit with a Counter-Claim insisting that Kofawe, Kurugbene, Ipinle are all parts of Igbokoda land as decided by the Colonial Provincial Court in 1917 in a suit between the Amapetu of Mahin representing the Igbokoda community and the Kalasuwe Oba of the Ijaws.
He further contended that Juwon Semudara had no land in any part of Igbokoda which includes Kofawe, Kurugbene and Ipinle which are distinct and separate communities.
