Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court sitting at Ring Road, Ibadan, on Tuesday granted the order of a stay of execution of judgment preventing the Oyo State government, the executive governor, the House of Assembly or any of its agent from removing local government and local council development area chairmen and councilors from office.
Justice Aderonke Aderemi had on May 6, 2019, delivered a judgment barring the state government, the governor, the House of Assembly or any of its agents from dissolving the executives of the local governments and local council development areas in the state.
The Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Oyo State Chapter, had filed a motion seeking to enforce the May 6 judgment on the grounds that the new administration in the state had dissolved council chairmen in contradiction of the judgment and the governor is planning to appoint caretaker chairmen for the local governments and local council development areas.
And the Oyo State government had since filed an appeal against the said judgment and the case is still pending before the appellate court when ALGON filed for execution of judgment.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Tuesday, counsel to ALGON, Barrister Kunle Sobaloju, who was absent and not represented by any other counsel, had sent a letter to the court seeking for an adjournment of the case till October 10 and had also filed a counter-affidavit against the resolution of the House of Assembly on July 9, which supported the governor’s action.
However, lead counsel to the defendants, Barrister Adeniyi Farinto, had objected and urged the court to reject the letter and the counter affidavit, stating that, “the letter of extension has exposed the evil machinations of the claimants. What they did is to exhibit disdain for the court, such application is laden with malice. They want to frustrate the defendants and the court. This application was done in bad faith.
“This application for adjournment is the most frivolous one I have ever seen in my legal career. It is an attempt to frustrate the defendants in this case and we oppose the motion for adjournment vehemently.”
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The court in its ruling agreed with the submissions of the counsel to the state government. Justice Ladiran while aligning with the submissions of the defendants in the matter had struck out the application and the counter affidavit.
The court had held that, “having carefully considered the letter of the claimants and the motion sought by the defendants, I am not persuaded that this court should give the adjournment sought by the claimants through their counsel.
“Giving the antecedent to the adjournment date, the letter is a deliberate ploy to delay the process of this case. The court views this as a deliberate attempt to frustrate the proceedings of this court, the adjournment sought by the claimants is hereby refused.”
One of the claimants, Basorun Bosun Ajuwon, who spoke on behalf of ALGON when asked by the court if he had anything to say on the matter since their lawyer was not present in court, appealed for a short adjournment on the ground that their lawyer was unavoidably absent, adding that, “our lawyer is handling a tribunal case and election petition is time-bound, we are appealing to you to give us some time.”
Justice Akintola struck out the motion for lack of diligent prosecution, adding that the state government has appealed the judgment and it would be an abuse of court processes to go on with it.
“I am satisfied with the defendant’s application and I hereby grant the motion of notice of appeal of the defendant. I hereby grant the stay of execution of the judgment, enforcing the judgment or giving effect to the judgment by the claimants or their privies,” Justice Akintola held.
The case was however adjourned till October 15 for hearing.
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