Adeleke’s Suspension Of State CJ Unconstitutional, Vindictive – Osun APC
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has picked hole in the suspension of the Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Adepele Ojo, by Governor Ademola Adeleke, describing it as crass illegality which can neither sit nor fly.
Adeleke and his House of Assembly action suspending the Chief Judge or asking her to step aside pending investigation is unconstitutional and utter rubbish as there is no provision in the Constitution for ‘suspending’ a Chief Judge or asking her to step aside pending investigation.
In his reaction to the queer and outlandish development, the Osun State APC chairman, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, today, stated that Adeleke and his compromised House of Assembly acted beyond their authority by venturing into the illegal suspension of the state Chief Judge.
Lawal tasked all the genuine stakeholders to come to the aid of the state as unfolding events are pointing to the fact that Governor Adeleke and his pliable state lawmakers are working assiduously in order to turn the state into a Banana Republic where the rules of the jungle will upstage the rules of law.
Lawal posited that it is disheartening to observe that Adeleke who had enjoyed the unfettered blessings of the judiciary in the past is now working against the judicial arm of government by abusing the court process and dragging the vital institution of the government in the mud.
In the words of the Osun State APC chairman: “It is laughable that Adeleke who is a recent beneficiary of the judiciary over alleged certificate forgeries is now leading a campaign of calumny against the state judiciary.
“We won’t advise Governor Adeleke and his acolytes not to dip their hands into a hole naturally designed for the habitation of deadly and dangerous reptiles if only they will wholly take responsibility for what becomes of their experience in such a dangerous terrain.
“If Governor Adeleke and his apparently confused kitchen cabinet members who are thinking for him could not know the danger in inheriting another person’s enemies by staging a war against the Chief Judge on the discreet directive of a man of yesterday who has an axe to grind with the CJ during his inglorious tenure, they should be ready for the debilitating effects of the backlash of their unpopular and illegal action.
“This is the auspicious time for all the patriots in the state to condemn the humiliation of the judiciary by Governor Adeleke whose actions and inactions in the office in about the last one year of his assumption of office have eroded the achievements of his predecessors.
“If a mentally challenged individual is left for the burial rites of the remains of his mother, there is every propensity for the troubled mind to make suya and pepper soup from same.
“Has Adeleke and his pliable House of Assembly forgotten that Section 153(1)(i) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which establishes the National Judicial Council stipulates in the 3rd Schedule, Part 1(d) of the constitution the empowerment of the National Judicial Council to recommend to the governor, the removal of a Chief Judge for misconduct and to exercise disciplinary control over the Chief Judge.
“A Chief Judge can only be removed by a governor, on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council as provided for
in Section 292(1)(b) of the constitution.
“Section 271(4) of the Constitution empowers a governor to appoint another Chief Judge only on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, subject to the confirmation of the House of Assembly.
“Finally, Adeleke and his House of Assembly action suspending the Chief Judge or asking her to step aside pending investigation cannot fly because it is against the law “, Lawal stated.
e-SIGNED:
Sooko TAJUDEEN LAWAL, Chairman, Osun State APC.
