'State of Osun' Illegal, It Remains Osun State, Court Declares
The Osun State High Court in Ilesa on Thursday declared the
change of the name of the state to the “State of Osun” illegal, null and void.
Delivering judgment in a case instituted by a human rights
activist, Kanmi Ajibola, challenging the legality of the ‘State of Osun Land
use charge Law’, Justice Yinka Afolabi ruled that the law and its makers were
unknown to the 1999 constitution.
In his over-one-hour judgment, the judge chided the state Governor,
Rauf Aregbesola, for deliberately and singlehandedly renaming the state
illegally contrary to the known norms and the country’s constitution.
He also declared that the makers of the law, who are
currently serving as members of the state House of Assembly, were not sworn in
as members of the ‘State of Osun House of Assembly’ but as members of Osun
State House of Assembly going by the seventh scheduled of the constitution.
Going through history of state creations in Nigeria
since 1962, Justice Afolabi stated that since the creation of the state in
1991, previous governments used the constitutional envisaged name, Osun State
while all other 35 states of the federation have not deviated from the
constitutional names given to them.
“The executive governor of the state changed the name in
2011. The renaming of a state goes further and deeper for anyone to
singlehandedly do. To re-order the name of Osun State as ‘State of Osun’ is hereby
declare illegal, null and void.
“On the oath of allegiance, I want to state that the seventh
schedule is part of the law. It is not a mere draft or mere oath. It does not
give room for any alteration. After deposing to an oath of office, you cannot
turn around to do otherwise,” the Justice Afolabi stated.
Ajibola had canvassed that all businesses done in the name of
‘State of Osun’ be declared null and void as saying such were done contrary to
the constitution.
He had gone to court in 2016, asking for certain
reliefs after being served a notice by a private company known as Interspatial
Limited and christened as ‘State of Osun Land use Charge Annual Demand Notice’
in the name of ‘State of Osun’, and signed by one Mrs. A. Ogunlumade, Permanent
Secretary of the state Ministry of Finance.
According to him, the notice was addressed to him
as the property owner of No. 42, Onigbogi Street off Ibala, Ilesa West, and was
served him on August 15, 2016.
Some of the reliefs he sought included a
declaration that the ‘State of Osun Land use Charge Law 2016’ having being
enacted by the legislative body that is not known to the constitution and for
the state not known to the 1999 constitution as such illegal and
unconstitutional.
An order setting aside the ‘State of Osun Land use
charge Law, 2016’ having being enacted by the legislative body that is not
known to the constitution and for the state not known to the 1999 constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is not enforceable in Osun State.
Among other reliefs sought by the plaintiff were “a
declaration that Osun State Government having been delegated with the power to
collect land use charge revenue by the provisions of section 2(2) and (3) of
the ‘State of Osun Land use charge Law, 2016’, Sections 4(1), 8(2), 10(1) &
(5), 16(c)(i) & (ii), 17, 18, 21(3) and 22 of the ‘State of Osun Land use
charge Law, 2016’ are not operable without appointing the Commissioner of
finance in Osun State.”
Justice Afolabi threw out all the arguments by the state
Attorney-General, Dr. Basiru Ajibola, who stood in as counsel for the state
governor and the state government and that of the Director of Legal Services,
Mrs. Rachel Ojinni, as he granted all the seven prayers of the plaintiff.
The judge also berated the governor for his refusal to
appoint his commissioners who should perform their statutory duties, saying the
tax law itself envisaged that tax matters must be endorsed by the Commissioner
for Finance and not any other person.
However, the state Attorney-General disclosed at the court
that the judgment would be appealed.
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