Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Study of Landlords versus Tenants' Disputes in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State

ABSTRACT

Misunderstanding, disagreement, dispute, conflict and the likes has been an integral part of human nature right from earliest time. No two or more people can live together interacting for a reasonable period of time without disagreeing to agree. Misunderstanding , disagreement, dispute and conflict has set men, neighbours, landlords and tenants, communities and nations against each other. Properties are destroyed, people are maimed, lives lost, houses set ablaze, all because of conflicts and disputes. It is from this type of scenario that has forced some people to initiate criminal cases against disputing parties. These cases may last for long without satisfactory dispute resolution acceptable to the disputing parties which would have further heal the wounds sustained as a result of the dispute. The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) came as a new innovation and a replacement to the hitherto practiced method of always resorting to initiating criminal proceding at the slightest provocation whenever one’s right has been violated. It is in the light of this, that this researcher decides to investigate the impact of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) on Landlords-tenants disputes in Yenagoa L.G.A. of Bayelsa State, Nigeria.