SANs right to condemn Ekiti speaker’s removal

A human right lawyer, Kayode Ajulo, has thrown weight behind the position of the senior lawyers who condemned the Ekiti State House of Assembly for removing the former Speaker, Gboyega Aribisogan.

Some senior advocates of Nigeria of the state origin had condemned Aribisogan’s removal, describing the action as a coup d’etat against the state.

The senior advocates who included Aare Afe Babalola, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Dele Adesina, Olu Daramola, Femi Falana, Dayo Akinlaja and Gboyega Oyewole, in a statement, said Aribisogan remained the Speaker and the action of the Olubunmi Adelugba (new Speaker) supporters to sack him was a nullity and asserted that she could not continue as Speaker.

Ajulo, in a statement on the development, described the position of the foremost senior lawyers as a fight to strengthen democracy and uphold the laws of the country, saying impunity was detrimental to the development of a nation.

Advertisement

He said, “You cannot underestimate the unmatchable contributions and services of these notable men to the development of legal profession and general growth of this country.

“I have had the privilege of working with almost all the six of them. They do not engage in frivolities and their integrity is intact. They possess enviable track records in the legal profession and national development that precede their names. All of them had, at one time or the other perfectly resolved more complex national issue. So, you do not expect them to fold their arms while this is happening at the backyard.

“It may be understandable if such a scenario had happened in some of the unsettled states of the country, but it is totally unthinkable to expect such in a peaceful, sophisticated, civilised, educated, egalitarian land that parades professors and notable men who have contributed to the development of this country in no small measure and not expect a strong reaction.”

Ajulo urged other notable figures in the legal profession to join in the call to “end deliberate violation of the constitution of the country.”