Judgment
JUMMAI HANNATU SANKEY, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an interlocutory appeal against the ruling of the High Court of Gombe State sitting in its appellate jurisdiction, delivered on 16th July, 2020, Coram: H.A. Mohammed, J. and H.A. Haruna J. The Appellants (as Defendants) had filed an appeal before the lower Court challenging the Judgment of the Upper Area Court 2 Gombe which was given in favour of the Respondent (as Plaintiff).
The trial Upper Area Court had granted the claim of the Respondent wherein the Appellants were ordered to pay compensation to the Respondent for the value of the building erected by him on property whose title had before then, been declared by an Area Court, and affirmed by the High Court and Court of Appeal, to belong to the Appellants.
Before the appeal was heard by the lower Court, the Respondent filed a motion on notice wherein he sought an order transferring the Appeal to the Sharia Court of Appeal on the ground that the issues involved relate to Islamic personal law, which was also applied in the determination of the case at the trial Upper Area Court.
After hearing the parties through their respective Counsel who, in arguing the motion, had filed written addresses, the lower Court granted the application and made an order transferring the appeal to be heard by the Sharia Court of Appeal, Gombe. Disgruntled by this order, the Appellant has filed this appeal complaining on two grounds. It may not be out of place to set out in brief the checkered history of the case which ultimately led to this appeal for a better understanding. It is well to also state that the facts of the case are not in dispute.
The Respondent was gifted the disputed property, the subject matter of this appeal, by Hajiya Tani during her lifetime. However, he did not take possession of the property until after she died. Upon doing so, he demolished the building which was already on the property and erected a storey building. A dispute arose between the Appellants, who were heirs to Hajiya Tani, and the Respondent over the property. Whereupon the Respondent filed a suit against the Appellants at the Area Court Bogo asking it to confirm the gift of the property to him by Hajiya Tani.
