Chief Yomi Alliyu SAN has raised the alarm that there may soon be a constitutional crisis in Osun State over an alleged request for the Letter of Retirement of the Chief Judge of the state.
Alliyu stated in a release, dated 11 June, 2023, that the state Head of Service ran foul of the constitution by requesting the Secretary to the Osun State Judicial Service Commission to bring to his office the Letter of Retirement of the Chief Judge.
Reacting however, the state government, in another release, debunked the alarm, declaring that there was no rift between the Executive and Judiciary arms of government in the state.
The directive of the Head of Service, Alliyu stated, was contrary to the current amendment to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“Today [Sunday], 11 June, 2023, Osun State Head of Service requested for the Letter of Retirement from the Chief Judge of Osun State from the Secretary to the Osun State Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
“Notwithstanding the current amendment to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), he commanded him to bring it to his [Head of Service] office.
“The Head of Service said he was acting on the instructions of the state governor, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke,” Alliyu stated.
He further stated that the Secretary to the Osun State JSC, after having waited for several hours in the office of the Head of Service, the latter directed him to meet him at a roadside junction in Osogbo, the state capital, to avoid people seeing them.
Alliyu added that the two of them were however seen together at the road junction by some witnesses who promptly alerted the Chief Judge of the alleged ungodly meeting.
“The Chief Judge, as the Chairman of Osun JSC summoned the Secretary, JSC to her presence and asked what he was doing at both the office of the Head of Service and at the road junction meeting.
“The Secretary had no choice than to tell the Chief Judge that the Head of Service said the governor asked him to go and collect the Chief Judge’s letter of retirement from JSC hence his summoning him to his office and road junction!
“They didn’t know that I was the Jagunmolu of Edeland. Now they didn’t also know that the Constitution has been amended, extending terms of judges of superior courts to 70 years!
“Constitutional war is brewing in Osun State! Some judges are bound to meet early retirement if they bow to temptation from the Executive to act in a position that has constitutional flavour!
“Everybody expect backlash from the Chief Judge condemning their friend to death and also for been loyal to the then sitting Governor Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola a pledge she has also made to the new governor who is her Lordship’s townsman on inauguration of the Osun State House of Assembly members!
“Those who beat the drum of constitutional crisis must be ready to have their lackeys in the judiciary as the first dancers!
“Let all God-fearing people of Nigeria know that starting a constitutional crisis at the beginning of a term certain of four years will have an impact that could mar whatever achievements the young governor could claim to at the end of his tenure,” Chief Alliyu, the Jagunmolu of Edeland stated.
However, the state government, in a release by Mallam Olawale Rasheed, the spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke, described as false the allegation by Alliyu.
It described the legal practitioner as an agent of the All Progressive Congress (APC) “who has turned himself into an unsolicited trumpet and a puppet of the Osun State Chief Judge.”
The governor’s spokesperson also accused Alliyu of cooking up a false story, saying “It is customary of him, the same way he did during the Osun governorship election petition.
“He had raised a fake alarm and an unjustifiable insinuation that there was a serious security threat in the state. This nonetheless turned out to be unfounded.
“It is unfortunate that a supposed learned senior lawyer can go that low on the path of propaganda and unnecessary sensation without exercising any iota of decorum and dignity.”
He further clarified that the present administration in the state “is enjoying a very warm and harmonious relationship with the Judiciary as against the pseudo acrimony being peddled by Mr Aliu (sic).
“Governor Adeleke is paying special attention to the welfare of judicial officers in the state as against the ridicule to which the past administration unleashed on the judges by irregular non-payment of their arrears of allowances and by not attending to the pecuniary benefits of the retired judges.
“Members of the public need to be informed that there is no controversy on the processes of disengagement or otherwise, even with respect to the old and new law on the retirement age for judges of superior courts.
“All insinuations in the hatchet job are false and figments of imagination of the propagandist.”
He described Governor Adeleke as a due process leader committed to full observance of the law without fear or favour and with due reference to impartial application for retirement or extension of tenure of public officials.
“Mr Aliu (sic) is cautioned on his constant false alarm and his phantom claim of constitutional crisis in Osun when there is none at all.
“The Judicial Service Commission is an executive body and its staff are appointees and employees of the executive. Therefore, it is indecent of Mr Aliu (sic) to unduly meddle in the running of affairs of the government.
“The controversial senior lawyer is known for propaganda and undue sensation as a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC). He is therefore to be ignored and not given any serious attention.
“He is also warned not to drag our noble Chief Judge into his infamous political agenda. In Osun State, all arms of government are in deep harmony for the good of the state.”
