Controversies have continued to trail the removal of Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Oyebola Adepele Ojo, by the state House of Assembly and Governor Ademola Adeleke.

After her removal last Thursday, the state governor appointed Justice Olayinka David Afolabi as the Acting Chief Judge.

The Guardian gathered that Ojo incurred the anger of some judges and lawyers in the state when she allegedly victimised three judicial workers. The workers were accused of stealing printing papers and printers at their offices in the Osun State High Court in 2020. They were suspended, arrested by the police and tried without a report from the disciplinary committee that investigated them.

However, an Osogbo Magistrate’s Court eventually acquitted and discharged them of any wrongdoing on July 1, 2022. But, since the case was determined, Chief Judge Ojo allegedly refused to direct the Court Registrar to lift suspensions placed on the workers, neither were they allowed to access their salaries, though their employees never appealed the court judgment.

It was gathered that all efforts made by some members of the Bench and Bar to appease Ojo to allow the workers have their lives back proved futile as the embattled CJ allegedly held on to their salaries.

A lawyer, Bukola Onifade, disclosed that the House of Assembly received a petition against Ojo.

In some quarters, it was alleged that Ojo had not been in good rapport with the governor since his emergence.

Meanwhile, a statement by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, last Thursday, said that the governor approved the resolution of the House of Assembly asking the Chief Judge to step aside over the allegation of misconduct.

Rasheed added that Ojo had been asked to “step aside pending investigation of allegations of misconduct, abuse of power, corruption and disregard for rule of law against her by the House of Assembly.”

However, Justice Afolabi, who was appointed as the Acting Chief Judge of Osun State by Governor Adeleke did not show up at the swearing-in ceremony scheduled to hold last Friday.

The Deputy Governor, Kola Adewusi, was directed by the governor to perform the swearing-in ceremony. But it was learnt that no such event took place at the Government Secretariat in Abeere on Friday.

According to sources, Adewusi was in Abuja when announcements that suspended Ojo and appointed Afolabi were made.

The deputy governor was, however, said to have arrived in the state and was in his office before the close of work on Friday.

Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, when contacted, said the swearing-in did not hold because certain procedures must be followed.

Alimi said a resolution of the House of Assembly suspending Ojo had been sent to the National Judicial Council (NJC).

He, however, said the swearing-in ceremony did not hold for all conditions to be fulfilled, adding that the deputy governor that was to perform the exercise was also outside the state and would only return in the evening of that day.

Alimi said he was unaware if Afolabi deliberately did not present himself for swearing-in.

Alimi, while insisting that Adeleke has not defied any court order, also said that “the Osun State House of Assembly that confirmed the appointment of Mrs. Adepele Ojo and asked her to step aside is not a party to any ongoing case or court order.”

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has described Adeleke’s approval for the suspension of Justice Ojo as an assault on the Judiciary.

The association also said that it would not recognise Justice Olayinka Afolabi as the acting Chief Judge of the state, adding that it would take all necessary steps to ensure the impunity does not stand.

The NBA, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Habeeb Lawal, while condemning the action, said it is an abuse of the rule of law and a desecration of the constitution.

The statement noted that the state government ignored the lawful order of interim injunction granted by the National Industrial Court sitting in Ibadan, which restrained the governor from interfering with the office of the Chief Judge.