The Seriki Chiefs of Ibadanland have filed a fresh suit against the installation of the Balogun of Ibadanland, Chief Saliu Adetunji, as the successor to the late monarch, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade I.
The remains of the late monarch who died on January 19, 2016 at 101 is expected to be interred Friday at the St. Peter, Anglican Church, Aremo, Ibadan.
The suit was filed by four chiefs in the Seriki Chieftaincy lineage: Adebayo Oyediji, Olalekan Fakunle, Rashidi Abinupagun and Gabriel Amoo, through their legal counsel, Abideen Adeniran.
The defendants are: the Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi; Attorney General of the state; and nine members of the present Olubadan-in-Council, including the Olubadan-designate, Chief Adetunji; the Otun Olubadan, Chief Lekan Balogun; the Osi Olubadan, Chief Rashidi Ladoja; Ashipa Olubadan, Chief Eddy Oyewole; the Ekerin Olubadan, Chief Abiodun Kola-Daisi; Otun Balogun, Chief Owolabi Olakuleyin; Osi Balogun, Chief Olufemi Olaifa; Ashipa Balogun, Chief Tajudeen Ajibola; and Ekerin Balogun, Chief Solomon Adabale.
The Plaintiffs argued that there is already in force an order of interlocutory injunction restraining Governor Ajimobi, the Attorney General of the state and Chief Adetunji, who are the first to third defendants, from filling any vacancy in the Olubadan of Ibadan chieftaincy.
The Seriki chiefs in a suit with number I/149/16 and dated February 8, 2016, dragged the 11 defendants to the High Court of the state and sought 21 reliefs, such as declaration that first claimant, Oyediji, is the person entitled to be appointed as the next Olubadan of Ibadanland after the death of Oba Odulana.
The second relief being sought before the court is an order that will direct the first defendant, Governor Ajimobi, to set the machinery in motion to appoint Oyediji as the next Olubadan and the third relief is a declaration that at present, there is “no Ekerin Olubadan, Ashipa Olubadan, Osi Olubadan, Otun Olubadan, Ekerin Balogun, Ashipa Balogun, Osi Balogun, Otun Balogun and Balogun chieftains in Ibadan.”
To serve as a bulwark to their case, the applicants said that “if this interim order of injunction is not made before the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction, the respondents would fill the vacancy in the Olubadan of Ibadan chieftaincy immediately on the 12th of February, 2016 and present this honourable court with a ‘fait accompli.’
“There is real urgency in this case because the ‘res’ to be preserved is the Olubadan of Ibadan Chieftaincy and the respondents have concluded their plans to install the defendant as the next Olubadan of Ibadan in spite of the pendency of the order of interlocutory injunction and in spite of this suit and the claimant learnt of this plan only on the 1st of February, 2016.
“If this situation should be allowed to occur, the applicants would suffer irreparable harm and injury as an irretrievable damage would have been done to them as the appointment of the third defendant (Chief Adetunji) as the next Olubadan would be irreversible and this would be a very grave injustice to the applicants, who had already obtained an order of the High Court against the defendants to restrain them from filling the vacancy in the Olubadan of Ibadan Chieftaincy.
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