Olugbense ruling house of Offa seeks Supreme Court’s reversal of judgment

The Olugbense ruling house of Offa, Offa Local Government Area (LGA) of Kwara state has filed a motion brought under the inherent jurisdiction of Supreme Court, seeking for an order of the apex court to set aside its judgment of July 1st 2016 on the footing that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the appeal.

Citing numerous dicta and supported by a 10-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Prince Abdulrauf Adegboyega Keji who is the Second Respondent/Applicant in the case coded SC/890/2014, the ruling house through its lead counsel Dayo Akinlaja SAN, prayed the court to overrule itself by declaring the judgment Ipso Facto and a nullity.

Besides, it prayed for an order allowing instead the cross-appeal wherein the issue of jurisdiction was raised to the effect that the Counter-Claim was statute-barred at inception having regards to the provisions of the applicable Public Officers Protection Law (POPL).

The grounds for the application dated June 15 this year and filed the same day among others included several demands.

The ground added that the error in calculation inadvertently made by the Court in the lead judgment allegedly misled it to assume jurisdiction over the Counter-claim of the Appellant /Respondent.

Other Respondents /Applicants for themselves and on behalf of the Olugbense Ruling House are Jimoh Abodunrin, Imam Bosere, Magaji and Head of Olugbense Ruling House, Offa and Prince Saka Keji.

The Respondents are Yunnus Bukoye, Essa of Offa, Alhaji Kadir Kolawole Bello, Ojomu of Offa, Alhaji Oseni Olaniyi, Balogun of Offa, Alhaji Zikrullah Kola Danni Olaboye, Shawo of Offa, Attorney General of Kwara state and the Governor of Kwara state.

The fulcrum of the issue for termination is linked with the case of Oloba v. Akereja (1988) 7 S. C. [PT. 1] 1 at 14 and 15 where the Supreme Court espoused the monumental importance of Jurisdiction to adjudication.

The Applicants here were the claimants in the action instituted at the Offa Division of the High Court of Kwara State, challenging the appointment of the Appellant/Respondent as Olofa of Offa. There was a Counter-Claim filed by the Appellant /Respondent and 4th-7th Respondents herein in the said action. The Applicants lost the case at the High Court while the Counter-claim of the Appellant and 4th-7th Respondents herein was equally dismissed on the ground that it was caught by estoppel as well as Public Officers Protection Act.

At the Court of Appeal, the Appeal of the Applicants was allowed and all the reliefs sought by them were granted while the joint appeal of the Appellant and the 4th-7th Respondents herein based on their counter-claim was partially allowed by the lower Court which held that the cause of action was not caught by the Limitation Law but refused to consider the appeal on merit. The decision of the lower Court that the Counter Claim was not statute-barred led to the cross-appeal filed by the Applicants herein as the Cross-appellants.

The Supreme Court in the course of considering the appeal of the Cross-appellants (Instant Applicants ) and the Appellant herein in a single judgment delivered on July 1st 2016 held, inter alia, that it agreed that the cause of action arose on the 22nd day of March 2010 and that the Counter Claim filed on the 12th of July 2010 was not caught by the POPL as applicable in this case.