By Cmr Igbokwe Onyebichi Martins

There have always been disputes arising from land matters which often end up in litigation; this is usually as a result of failure to obtain the right documents for proper ownership of land and also the failure to complete the process of acquiring a perfect title to the land. That is why in the bid to achieving justice, the court will rule in favour of any party that can prove a better title to a land or property. This was the position of the court in ELEGUSHI v. OSENI (2005) 14 NWLR (PT 945) AT 348.
Thus in law, there is every possibility that the owner of a piece of land or property may not appear before the law as a person with a better title as it was held in the case of Agboola v. United Bank for Africa Plc. & 2 Ors. (2011) 4 CLRN 33. In the popular case of IDUNDUN v. OKUMAGBA (1976) 9-10 SC, 227 1 NMLR, the supreme court held that title or ownership to land can be proved in any of the following five ways:

1. By traditional evidence.

2. By production of documents of title duly authenticated and executed.

3. By acts of ownership extending over a sufficient length of time numerous and positive enough as to warrant the inference of true ownership.

4. By acts of long possession and enjoyment, and

5. Proof of possession of connected or adjacent land in circumstances rendering it probable that the owner of such connected or adjacent land would, in addition, be the owner of the land in dispute.

Thus the most common ways listed above is the production of a document of grant or title. This method entails providing any of the following document; Deed of Assignment/ conveyance, a Deed of gift, a legal Mortgage, and a Certificate of Occupancy. As such it is important that a person intending to buy a land must make sure to instruct his lawyer to perfect the title of the land or property.