Arts & Humanities Journal|IJAH

Title: LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND INTERCOMMUNITY BOUNDARY LITIGATIONS IN COLONIAL SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA: A PERSPECTIVE ANALYSIS
Authors: Olupayimo Dolapo Zacchaeus
Volume:3 Issue: 10
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Olupayimo Dolapo Zacchaeus Department of History, Adeyemi College of Education, PMB 520, Ondo, Nigeria.
MLA 8 Zacchaeus, Olupayimo Dolapo. "LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND INTERCOMMUNITY BOUNDARY LITIGATIONS IN COLONIAL SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA: A PERSPECTIVE ANALYSIS." Int. J. Arts&Humanities, vol. 3, no. 10, Oct. 2019, pp. 376-389, journal-ijah.org/more2019.php?id=29. Accessed Oct. 2019. APA Zacchaeus, O. (2019, October). LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND INTERCOMMUNITY BOUNDARY LITIGATIONS IN COLONIAL SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA: A PERSPECTIVE ANALYSIS. Int. J. Arts&Humanities, 3(10), 376-389. Retrieved from journal-ijah.org/more2019.php?id=29 Chicago Zacchaeus, Olupayimo Dolapo. "LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND INTERCOMMUNITY BOUNDARY LITIGATIONS IN COLONIAL SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA: A PERSPECTIVE ANALYSIS." Int. J. Arts&Humanities 3, no. 10 (October 2019), 376-389. Accessed October, 2019. journal-ijah.org/more2019.php?id=29.
References [1]. I wish to appreciate the African Humanities Program of the American Council of Learned Society which funded this project by granting me Residential Fellowship to complete the writing at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and also Profs. Betram B.B. Mapunda and Yousufu Q. Lawi who mentored me through the time of writing. [2]. Jill Cottrell, "The Role of the Legal Profession in Nigeria" Journal of Nigerian Public Affairs. Vol. 1,No. 1, 1970. 42 [3]. Omoniyi Adewoye, "Legal Practice in Ibadan City, 1904-1960" in Journal of Legal Pluralism, No. 24 pp. 57-76. [4]. A.O. Obilade The Nigerian Legal System (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1979) p. 5 [5]. Ordinance No 3 of 1863 [6]. Supreme Court Ordinance 1876 [7]. P. Okoronwankwo, Criminal Justice in Precolonial, Colonial and Post-Colonial Eras: Application of the Colonial Model to Changes to Severity of Punishment in Nigerian Law.(Maryland: Maryland University Press, 2010) [8]. A.O. Obilade The Nigerian Legal System...p. 5 [9]. The life and time of C. A. Sapara-Williams in http://abiyamo.com/christopher-alexander-sapara-williams-nigeriasfirst-lawyer-2/ (Accessed on 22/09/2017) [10]. Ibid. [11]. National Archives Ibadan,- (NAI) CSO 1/32 Vol. 120 J.A. Maybin to Secretary of State for Colonies, 15th January, 1937 Enclosure. [12]. Omoniyi Adewoye, The Judicial system in Southern Nigeria: 1854-1954(London: Longman Group, 1977) pp.266- 267 [13]. O. Adewoye Judicial System in Southern Nigeria...p.112 [14]. The Protectorate Court Ordinance 1933 [15]. A.O. Obilade The Nigerian Legal System, (Sweet and Maxwell, 1979)
Keywords: Colonial judiciary, legal representation, land-boundary, Litigation
Abstract: For a very long time, the Colonial judiciary in Nigeria did not permit legal representation in land boundary cases in Yorubaland and in the whole of Southwestern Nigeria. The reasons for this were diverse, but one basic reason was the colonial government’s anxiety about the political stability of the colonial estate if lawyers were given free hand to operate in West Africa. However, legal practitioners soon found their way around the embargo by filing their applications for transfer of cases under Section 25 1 (c) of the Native Courts Ordinance 1933. The present work is an interrogation of the activities of legal practitioners in this class of cases so as to showcase the gains or otherwise of lawyers appearance for their clients in land boundary cases. Data for the work were essentially judgments delivered in this class of case, colonial government papers deposited in National Archives, Ibadan Nigeria and private papers. The data are analysed through the use of historical method where varying documents are confronted with each other to beat down subjectivity and bring out a historically objective view. Findings revealed that lawyers were facilitators of the arms of equity in land boundary cases.
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