NACOMYO CONDEMNS ATTEMPT TO STRANGULATE JUSTICE IN AWO EKITI BY EKITI STATE GOVERNMENT
The National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO) Ekiti State chapter is bewildered to note the current move by Ekiti State Government (under Governor Kayode Fayemi) to subject the valid decision of the courts on the matter of Alawo of Awo Ekiti chieftaincy to administrative review through the Chieftaincy Committee of Ekiti State Traditional Council.
In line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other extant laws guiding the appointment of traditional rulers; the aggrieved parties, upon the appointment of Oba Azeez Sulaimam Olaleye Aladejuyigbe, approached the court of law to challenge the appointment of the traditional ruler. In the process, both the lower court and the Court of Appeal dismissed the case as unmeritorious, vexatious, null and void.
Even when the aggrieved parties had the opportunity of appealing the court’s pronouncement on the Alawo of Awo chieftaincy to the Supreme Court, being the highest court in the land, they bungled the opportunity by sleeping on their right to appeal within the time stipulated by the laws of the land.
By this development, the verdict of the Court of Appeal remains the final pronouncement and the law on the Alawo of Awo Ekiti chieftaincy tussle.
The aggrieved parties have experimented with series of plots to secure for themselves what they could not got from the court. They have resorted to name calling, brutal attacks on the Kabiyesi and his household, and all forms of shenanigans towards the removal of the legitimately appointed Alawo of Awo Ekiti to no avail. Each time they strike, the masses of Awo Ekiti are always out to curtail and repel their ungodly actions in the defence of the truth and justice.
Realising the futility of their resort to self help, the aggrieved parties have now found alliance in some *’powerful’* individuals from Awo Ekiti who are very influential in the government of the day in Ekiti State. These *’powers and principalities’* have vowed to employ all forms of tactics and measures towards the extrajudicial removal of the Alawo of Awo Ekiti.
As a way of breathing life to their resolve, the *’powerful forces of Awo Ekiti’* caused series of petitions to the government of Ekiti State on the matter of the appointment of Alawo of Awo Ekiti.
Rather than counselling the *’Awo Ekiti merchants of war’* to accept the decision of the Honourable Courts as the final position on the Alawo of Awo Ekiti chieftaincy; the government of Ekiti State decided to lend listening ears to the ignoble, worthless and unmerritorius petitions.
In the process, the Government of Ekiti State paved way for the re-hearing of a matter that has been decided by the courts through the Chieftaincy Committee of Ekiti State Traditional Council.
As advocates of due process, rule of law, justice and fairplay, NACOMYO Ekiti State chapter is of the view that the decision of Ekiti State Government to allow administrative review of a matter that has been judicially decided to finality is wrong, strange and ill-motivated.
We strongly view it as a bold move to strangulate justice and castrate the rule of law by the State Government in the Alawo of Awo Ekiti chieftaincy matter. We therefore condemn the unholy and illegal move. We assert that the move is nothing but an attempt at placating the *’Awo Ekiti powers and principalities’* who are close allys of the present government of Ekiti State.
Going by the Islamic injunction that enjoins all men of goodwill and conscience to repel and condemn evil deeds wherever it is being perpetrated, we hereby send a clear notice to Ekiti State Government that NACOMYO will resist the illegal attempt at re-writing history in the matter of Alawo of Awo Ekiti chieftaincy.
The government of Ekiti State is hereby advised, in the interest of justice and peaceful coexistence, to shun the temptation to tamper with or manipulate the outcome of the courts on the Alawo of Awo Ekiti chieftaincy.
Tajudeen Olutope Ahmed, Esq
Coordinator
11/09/2020.