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From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has extended the restraining order against the House of Assembly not to remove the Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan.
Justice Ladiran Akintola extended the order for one day when the matter came up, yesterday, saying the ruling he gave on June 29 that status quo should be maintained on the impeachment proceedings of the deputy governor, still subsists.
The matter first came up before the court on Tuesday, June 28. But the presiding judge had to adjourn the case to the following day, June 29 for hearing because only the counsel of the claimant was present in the court. The following day, counsel to all the parties were present. Counsel to the defendants, however, told the court that he was served the motion on notice at the close of work on Tuesday, June 28, and asked for more time for his clients to respond to the application.
At the proceedings on Tuesday, July 5, Afolabi Fashanu appeared for the Olaniyan (claimant) while Kunle Kalejaiye led the legal team of the three defendants to the court
The defendants are the Speaker, House of Assembly (first defendant), the state House of Assembly (second defendant), and the clerk of the House of Assembly (third defendant) in the matter.
The restraining order followed an application for interlocutory injunctions filed before the court last week by Olaniyan’s counsel for the status quo to remain, pending the hearing of the suit.
He had argued that it was imperative for the court to grant the application for interim injunction that would restrain the House of Assembly from taking any step in pursuant of the impeachment suit. He appealed that the court should allow the application for the status quo to remain, pending the hearing so that the application would not be a waste.
The court had held that all impeachment processes of the deputy governor be put on hold, saying the status-quo must be maintained, pending the hearing of the application for interlocutory injunctions. The case was then adjourned to July 5 (yesterday) for hearing.
But at the court, yesterday, Fashanu said he received scanned copies of the response of the defendants to the suit late last Friday. And that the scanned copies were not very clear, which prevented him from preparing his reply to the response of the defendants.
Kalajaiye, however, did not wait for Fashanu to ask for adjournment before he stood up and argued vehemently against any adjournment, describing such as a tactic to delay hearing of the matter.
After heated argument between the two leading counsel, they agreed with the court to adjourn the case to today for hearing, while the claimant’s counsel promised that he would file his reply to the response of the defendants this morning. Kalajaiye also prayed the court to vacate the restraining order.
Justice Akintola, however, adjourned the case to today and extended the injunction till today as well.
The impeachment move was initiated after the deputy governor, a retired permanent secretary, dumped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) as a result of purported frosty relationship between him and the governor, Seyi Makinde.
The letter that initiated the impeachment move was dated, June 9, 2022, and was received the same day in the Office of the Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin. It was entitled: “Petition and Notice of Allegations of the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Rauf Olaniyan.”
