Attraction Court docket Reinstates Sacked Ondo Deputy Speaker

The Court docket of Attraction sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Tuesday reinstated Hon. Iroju Ogundeji because the Deputy Speaker of the State’s Home of Meeting, a yr after he accomplished his tenure.

In a unanimous resolution, Justices Oyebisi Folayemi Omoleye, Frederick Oziakpono-Oho and Justice Yusuf Alhaji Bashir upheld the judgment of Justice Akintan Osadebey that reinstated the two-term lawmaker who represented Odigbo state constituency within the Meeting.

The Meeting, below the management of former Speaker, Hon. David Bamidele Oleyeloogun, had suspended Ogundeji as a member of the Meeting and finally eliminated him because the Deputy Speaker.

Iroju served the remainder of his tenure as a lawmaker in suspension.

Displeased with the motion, Ogundeji, by his lawyer, Oluwanike Omotayo Esq, approached the court docket for the nullification of the suspension as a lawmaker and removing because the Deputy Speaker.

Omotayo instructed the court docket that the choice of the Meeting was a nullity, for the reason that purported impeachment didn’t observe the constitutional necessities.

The counsel added that the purported removing of Ogundeji contravened Order Two, Part 9 (1-10) of the principles and standing order of the State Home of Meeting, saying the regulation required a two-third majority of the members earlier than any of the principal officers of the Meeting may very well be impeached.

Justice Osadebey, in her judgment, ordered the reinstatement of Ogundeji because the Deputy Speaker of the Meeting.

The court docket described as unlawful, null, and void, the purported removing of Ogundeji because the Deputy Speaker on November 24, 2020, by some members of the Meeting.

The choose additional held that the lawmaker was not given a good listening to because the purported impeachment had been carried out earlier than a panel to research him was arrange by the Meeting.

This, the choose held, was like placing the cart earlier than the horse, including that the claimant was not personally served by the impeachment proceedings, which made it a nullity.

Additionally, the Decide stated there was no parliamentary decision earlier than the purported impeachment was carried out and that not all members have been current through the impeachment as required by the principles of the Meeting and the 1999 structure.

The court docket additional held that the signing of parliamentary assembly attendance was not tantamount to consent as 9 out of the 26-member Meeting dissociated themselves from the purported impeachment.

Subsequently, the court docket ordered that Ogundeji ought to be reinstated and all his entitlements paid up-to-date whereas his paraphilia of workplace ought to be restored instantly, simply because the appointment of Aderoboye was described as a nullity.

Consequently, Justice Osadebey awarded N10 million as damages for the humiliation suffered by the lawmaker throughout his purported impeachment and suspension.

Displeased with the decision of the decrease court docket, the Meeting, by the then Lawyer Common and Commissioner for Justice, Titiloye Charles, appealed the judgment.

In his attraction, Charles stated the trial court docket lacked jurisdiction to listen to the swimsuit, having not complied with the necessary provision referring to pre-action discover.

Nevertheless, the appellate court docket dismissed all of the legs of the attraction of the Meeting and ordered the lawmaker to be paid all his entitlements as a lawmaker and because the Deputy Speaker of the ninth Meeting.