Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) Aare Afe Babalola has advised Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq against reviewing the supreme court judgement on the land dispute involving Offa and Erin Ile, saying he lacks the powers to undertake such action.
The governor had last week constituted a peace committee headed by former governor of the state, Chief Cornelius Adebayo towards bringing lasting peace to the two communities.
Babalola said he handled the Erin Ile’s boundary dispute case against Offa in 1971, where the court had given judgement in favour of the town, by affirming that a place named ‘Kere Ipinle’, a boundary between the two feuding towns, belongs to Erin Ile.
The Supreme Court had in its separate judgements delivered by Justices Teslim Elias and Mary Odili, ceded the disputed land to Erin Ile in 1973 and 2018 respectively, but the judgment has not been implemented.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who spoke on Saturday, while receiving a delegation from Erin Ile at his office in ABUAD, said no committee or individual can review the judgement of any court.
While addressing the issue, the legal luminary said; “I was the one who handled the case in 1971 and the supreme court, the highest judicial body in the land, gave favourable judgement to Erin Ile in 1973. With this, nobody, no matter how highly placed can review what the Supreme Court had said, that can’t happen.”
Babalola added: “I am personally interested in this case, because I handled the case ab initio and by practice and convention, I am part and parcel of Erin Ile Community.”
The Spokesman of the Erin Ile delegation, Muideen Bello, applauded Babalola for his service in ensuring justice for the town, regretting that some powerful forces were working against the implementation of the Apex court’s verdict.
“It is very unfortunate that Supreme Court could be this debased. The powerful people were blocking the implementation of the judgements we got in 1973 and 2018. This shouldn’t happen in a democracy,” he said.
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