Alaafin stool: Court adjourned hearing of OyoMesi suit against Govt til November 2

The Oyo State High Court sitting in Oyo town has adjourned the hearing of case instituted by four out of six Oyo Mesi and one warrant chief against Governor Seyi Makinde, the State Attorney General, and the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matter over the selection of new Alaafin of Oyo till Thursday, November 2.

Recall that Oyomesi in Council had on October 27th 2023, dragged Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, and others to court over the vacant stool of the Alaafin of Oyo.

However the kingmakers in their suit marked HOY/38/2023 before the Oyo State High Court in Oyo seeking a court injunction to restrain the governor and his agents “from aborting the process for the selection/appointment of the candidate for filling the vacant stool of Alaafin of Oyo duly conducted by the kingmakers of Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy.”

The Claimants in suit no, HOY/38/2023 are High Yusuf Akinade Ayoola, (Basorun of Oyo town) High Chief Wakeel Akindele Oyedepo, (Laguna of Oyo town) High Chief Amuda Yusuf, (Akinniku of Oyo), Chief Waheed Oyetunji (Aare Ago Basorun), and Chief Gbadebo Mufutau (Baale Alapo). All the Claimants were present in Court.

The lead Counsel to the claimant, Kazeem Sobaloju, (SAN) had in his argument pleaded for a stay of status quo pending the determination of the substantive suit.

He submitted that the claimants have two motions before the court; motion exparte on interim order of injunction and motion of notice on interlocutory injunction.

But Counsel to defendants E.O. Ojebisi, a Senior State Counsel at the Oyo State Ministry of Justice said they have just been served the motions not up to five days as required by the law on the service of notice.

He, therefore, requested more time to file a counter affidavit.

However, Sobaloju urged the court to grant an order of stay of status quo as a result of the urgency in the matter.

Sobaloju submitted that the kingmakers had performed their traditional role of selecting the new Alaafin as enshrined in the Chieftaincy law but the state governor instead of approving the process asked them to start the process afresh.

But Justice Ladiran Akintola insisted that there was no urgency in the matter and, thereby, told the counsels to agree on a date for the hearing.

He said the defendants should be given the opportunity to be joined in the suit with the filing of a counter affidavit.

He said “it is after this that I can rule on the stay of the status quo.”