Son and mother battles each other over deceased father/husband's land

Efforts by family members and a landlord association in Ije-Ododo, Iba Local Council Development Area, Lagos State, to persuade Mr. Abiodun Lawal to stop the land case between his parents after his mother died in 2012, has yielded no fruit.

Abiodun, 37, said his mother, Alhaja Fausat Lawal,   gave him the instruction to continue the land suit she filed against her husband, 71-year-old Alhaji Sule Lawal, after her death.

He said, “Our mother bought the land, one acre in size, for her three children. But our father claimed to be the rightful owner and went ahead to sell parts of the land to some people.

“Before she died, she had instructed us, the children, never to terminate the suit but to follow it to the end.”

Family sources said Abiodun deliberately evaded series of meetings where the matter could have been resolved amicably.

Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, who presides over the matter at a Lagos High Court in Igbosere, has subsequently made an order substituting Abiodun with his late mother as the claimant. The matter has also been fixed for October 15 for adoption of final address.

The late Fausat, who died of breast cancer at the age of 56, had filed the law suit against her husband on March 10, 2009 over the disputed land.

The deceased had accused Sule of illegally selling parts of her piece of land located in Ije-Ododo in Iba LCDA.

She joined as first defendant in the suit, Mr. John Egbotoloun, who had already built a house on part of the land which he had bought from her husband. Her husband was joined as the second defendant.

Fausat, who had testified in the matter before she died, stated on oath that she bought the land on March 16, 1976 from Mr. Teslim Almaroof.

She stated that she later discovered that portions of the land had been sold to some persons and structures erected on it in 2008.

According to her, while others left the land when they discovered that the land was illegally sold to them, Egbotoloun stayed.

Meanwhile, other defendants have justified their claim to the land in their separate statements on oath.

Sule insisted that he was the genuine owner of the land which he said he  bought in 1998 from  Almaroof with his business trade name, ATRAS Nigeria Limited.

Egbotoloun also claimed that  he bought the land genuinely from Sule with the knowledge of the deceased in 2003.

He stated that he remained a friend to the couple till he started building his house on the land and moved into it in 2006.