Two members of the Olubadan-in-Council, High Chief Lekan Balogun and High Chief Rashidi Ladoja, who are Otun and Osi Olubadan respectively, have dragged Governor Abiola Ajimobi to Court over his plans to review the 1957 Chieftaincy Law which stipulates succession order to the throne of the Olubadan of Ibadan land.

Senators Ladoja and Balogun are asking the state High Court in the suit number m/317/2017 to restrain the seven-member Judicial Commission of Inquiry from sitting, accepting any memorandum or in any way taking any step in furtherance of its assignment, pending the determination of motion on notice in respect of the subject.

Governor Ajimobi, on May 19, inaugurated the judicial panel headed by retired Justice Akintunde Boade, with the mandate to review the existing requirement and qualification for ascendancy to the throne of the Olubadan and submit its report in four weeks.

The two Ibadan High Chiefs in a suit filed by their counsel, Michael Lana, contend that the judicial panel by the Governor was said to have been constituted under Sections 10, 12 and 25 of the Chiefs Law 2000 was invalid, as the governor lacked the power to change or amend the customary law relating to the selection of Olubadan.

The claimants said the primary aim of the Chiefs Law was that traditional institutions must be guided and operated not in accordance with modern dictates as argued by the governor but by the customary rules of each community.

They contend that only the Chieftaincy Committee which made the 1957 Olubadan Declaration and which must be peopled by recognised chiefs and not any judicial commission could amend the law.

They added that the certain situations, including insufficient description of Olubadan selection process, must exist to warrant such amendment.

Apart from the alleged illegality of the commission, the claimants said only two members of the panel are Ibadan indigenes, adding that it was improper for non-Ibadans to determine the fate of Ibadan indigenes on issues relating to the emergence of the Olubadan. Olach.

Reports by Kunle Ojo