- The court ordered the Oyo State Government to conduct a fresh selection process for the next Soun
- This followed a suit filed by one of the contestants, Kabir Laoye
The Oyo State High Court sitting in Ogbomoso has sacked Oba Ghandi Olaoye as the new Soun of Ogbomoso.
The court ordered the Oyo State Government to conduct a fresh selection process for the next Soun.
This followed a suit filed by one of the contestants, Kabir Laoye.
Laoye had argued in his suit that Olaoye was not eligible to be appointed as Soun and that his appointment was, therefore, illegal.
The court agreed with Laoye’s argument and ruled that Olaoye’s appointment was null and void.
The court also ordered the government not to appoint anyone to the position until after its judgement.
The Oyo State Government announced Olaoye as the new Soun on September 8, 2023, and he was installed on the same day.
Meanwhile, Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has reserved its verdict on an appeal that was brought before it by Governor Seyi Makinde and some principal officers of Oyo State over their failure to pay an outstanding judgment debt of N3.4 billion.
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, had ordered that the money should be paid to Local Government Chairmen and Councillors who were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, but were sacked on May 29, 2019, by Makinde after he assumed office as the governor of Oyo State.
The court ordered Governor Makinde, the Attorney-General of Oyo State, the Accountant-General and four others, to pay N4,874,889,425.60 to the former council chairmen over the illegal termination of their tenure.
The order was further affirmed on May 7, 2021, by the Supreme Court, which declared that the ex-council chiefs, who sued through 11 representatives led by Bashorun Majeed Ajuwon, was unlawful.
The apex court directed the Oyo State government to compute and pay them their entitled salaries and allowances within three months of the judgment.
However, in partial compliance with the judgement, the Oyo State government paid only N1.5 billion, an action that prompted the sacked Chairmen and Councillors to initiate a garnishee proceeding against Governor Makinde and the others before the FCT High Court.
On the strength of their application, Justice A.O. Ebong, on April 27, issued a garnishee order absolute, directing Governor Makinde and other defendants in the matter to pay the balance of the judgment debt on an instalment basis, beginning with N1,374,889,425.60 to be paid immediately.
Justice Ebong ordered them to subsequently pay the remaining N2bn at N500 million quarterly, with the first instalment payable on July 31, 2023, a decision that Makinde and the other defendants approached the appellate court to challenge.
At the commencement of proceedings in the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/595/2023, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, queried the competence of an appeal.
The panel, which had Justices Mohammed Mustapha and Danlami Senchi as members, asked counsel to the appellants, Mr Ayodele Akintunde, SAN, if he thought it was proper for the Court of Appeal to sit and review a case that had been decided by the Supreme Court.