A Lagos-based journalist, Prince Afolayan Adebiyi, has been granted a huge reprieve in his quest to overturn the open manipulation and miscarriage of justice in the process of nominating a candidate to fill the vacant stool of Oloja of Kajola Town, Esa Oke Kingdom.
This is as the Hon. Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede of Osun State High Court sitting in Ijebu Jesa Thursday (July 5) Ordered the Owa Omiran of Esa Oke to give effect to the recommendation of the reports of the Screening Committee set up to select a candidate to fill the vacant stool of Oloja of Kajola Town, Esa Oke.
The stool, it will be recalled, had become vacant following the demise of the late Oloja, Oba Elijah Idowu Ekundayo, who joined his ancestors in January 2019.
This is as Hon. Justice Oloyede had granted an Order setting aside the purported selection and installation of Akande as the Oloja of Kajola Town.
The Court also went further by granting a perpetual Order restraining him form further parading himself as the Oloja of Kajola Town.
It will be recalled that the Kajola Development Council had called all interested candidates from Ile Olowa Oke to obtain a nomination form by November of the year 2019.
Consequently to this, Prince Afolayan and three others, Adeleye Durojaye, Solomon Durojaye and Akande Adebiyi were said to had obtained the nomination form.
The four contestants were screened between September 5 and 6, 2020 and Prince Afolayan was adjudged by the seven-man Screening Committee as “the most appointable” candidate to fill the vacant stool of Oloja of Kajola Town. Afolayan was said to have led others with a wide margin, with Adeleye coming in a distant second.
But while the Quarter’s Chiefs were still putting heads together to come up with a competent candidate, the Owa Omiran of Esa Oke, in a twist, suddenly went ahead and unilaterally appointed Mr. Akande Adebiyi, who was adjudged by the Screening Committee as the least qualified, based on the criteria set for them, and I installed him as the substantive Oloja of Kajola Town.
But after having exhausted all internal mechanisms of peaceful resolution with the larger Esa Oke community, with no success, Prince Afolayan immediately took his case before the Hon. Justice of the Osun State High Court, sitting in Ijebu Jesa for judicial adjudication.
The suit filed since November 2021 did suffer many adjournment, but has now been slated for hearing from Monday July 10.
Meanwhile, the Court on Thursday (July 5) restrained Mr. Akande Adebiyi from further parading himself as the Oloja of Kajola, Esa Oke Kingdom.
Also, restrained is the Owa Omiran of Esa Oke, the Chieftancy Committee of the Obokun Local Government Council from further according any recognition to the said Akande as his selection and installation did not follow the due process.
Speaking with newsmen after the Court sitting on Thursday, Prince Afolayan pleaded with the Kajola Community in Esa Oke to remain steadfast and calm, saying “happy days are near”.
He urged them “to continue to be law-abiding and peaceful in their conduct”.
“We are almost there. Victory is certain. The Judiciary remains the hope of the common man and the voice of the voiceless in the society”, he said philosophically.
He admonished them not to do anything that may “jeopardize their beautiful case before the Honourable Judge”.
