The 75 Coronet Obas installed by Senator Ibikunle Amosun have appealed to Governor Dapo Abiodun to obey the court judgment reinstating them.

Speaking through their principal counsel, Barrister Olumide Oniyire urged the Ogun state government to obey the rule of law by re-installing them as Coronet wearing Obas through the court judgment on November 29, 2021.

Barrister Oniyire at the weekend said that the Ogun state government had filed an appeal against the high court judgment at the court of appeal and applied for a stay of execution of the judgment.

The legal luminary explained that the stay of execution was dismissed, saying that the Ogun state government failed to compile and transmit

record of appeal to the court of appeal thereby unnecessarily delaying the hearing of the appeal.

He described the refusal of the State Governor to obey the court judgment as an act of lawlessness.

The counsel to the Coronet Obas said ” regrettably, the state government has not obeyed the court judgment to date. The state government lodged an appeal against the judgment at the appeal court and consequently applied for a stay of execution of the judgment.
The application for stay of execution was dismissed and the appellant has to date not compiled and transmitted record of appeal to the court of appeal thus unnecessarily delaying the hearing of her own appeal”

” The upshot of the foregoing premise is that the Ogun state government has been delinquent in its conduct with regards to its lack of observance and denigration of democratic tenets of the rule of law particularly the concepts of the supremacy of the law and equality of all persons and authority before the law, thus, rendering the courts, in particular, a victim of Ogun state government’s egregious and reckless conduct as the government of Ogun state continues unabatedly to defecate on the face of a subsisting court judgment.

It is simply the height of government indiscipline, lawlessness, and unprecedented desecration of the temple of justice to refuse to obey a court judgment”.
According to the legal luminary, some of the Coronet Obas numbering five have died in the course of the struggle for the enforcement of rights and benefits associated with their appointments as coronets, saying that the state government has remained highly insensitive and insensate to the plight of the Coronet Obas who are judgment creditors having regards to the Ogun state government high court judgment.

” It is therefore expected that the Ogun state government will atone and respect the judgment of the court pending judgment on appeal. It is never too late for corrections to be made”

He however commended the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Babatunde Adewale Ajayi for recognizing and installing one of the Coronet Obas just this week, Oba Hassan Bayoruwa Oye- Bello as Alatoyo of Atoyo in Sagamu local government area of Ogun state.

Barrister Oniyire called on other Paramount Rulers in the state to emulate the Akarigbo of Remoland by recognizing and installing the Coronet Obas in their domains.

Asked about his comment on the purported committee set up recently by the state government to recognize only 40 out of the 75 Coronet Obas, the legal luminary responded that such a move from the state government is an abuse of court process and flagrant disobedience to the rule of law, explaining that during the court proceeding at the state high court, 15 of the corner Obas withdrew from the case while five of them have died remaining 55 Coronet Obas who are now judgment creditors.

Barrister Oniyire urged the state government to shelve such an insensitive ideas by obeying the court judgment by recognizing and installing the Coronet Obas who are judgment creditors without further delay.

It would be recalled that the former Governor of Ogun state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun installed the 75 Coronet Obas at the twilight of his administration in May 2019 but was revoked by Prince Dapo Abiodun- led government in February 2020 but later upturned by the judgment of the state high court on November 29 2021 recognizing all the appointed Coronet Obas as the validly appointed Coronet Obas.