Osun Assembly Dismisses Justice Folahanmi’s Petition

Osun State House of Assembly yesterday dismissed the petition of Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, against Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
The House held that the petitioner was found wanting of abandoning the petition for non-appearance, lack of evidence, premising her petition on rumours and hearsay.
Oloyede, a serving judge in the state had, in a 39-page petition sent to the House of Assembly accused Governor Aregbesola of mismanagement of public fund and demanded his investigation and possible impeachment by the House.
The speaker, Hon. Najeem Salaam asserted that the judge has betrayed the oath of her office, saying that Folahanmi filed the petition out of partisanship and emotional disposition.
He stressed that the violation of processes and procedure as spelt out by the constitution and judicial code of conduct has shown her as unfit for the bench.
Besides, the House in a motion of 25 against one, as moved by the majority leader, Mr. Timothy Owoeye and seconded by Mr. Abdulahi Ibrahim representing Iwo State Constituency, adopted the recommendations of the seven-man committee headed by Mr. Akintunde Adegboye which dismissed the petition and recommended the petitioner for sanction through the State Judicial Service Commission.
Explaining why he allowed the petition to sail through, the speaker noted that the state parliament under his watch elected to look into the petition not to gag Oloyede’s freedom of expression in accordance with sections 128 and 129 of the constitution which empowered the legislature to investigate any public petition forwarded to the House, saying the issue of impeachment raised in the petition was a mere opinion of the petitioner not the position of the law.
Salaam reiterated that the parliament was conscious of the letter and the spirit of section 188 raised by some lawyers.
LEADERSHIP