>
An Oyo State High Court sittibg at Ring Road, Ibadan, on Monday, restrained the
immediate past governor of Oyo state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, and the state government from going or visiting a landed property belonging to the former governor which the current administration revoked from him pending the determination of interlocutory injunction filed before the court.
The presiding judge, who is also the Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Abimbola, gave the order following the inability of the court to hear
a Motion on Notice for interlocutory injunction filed by Kazeem
Gbadamosi, the legal counsel to Ajimobi, due to the failure of
the counsel to the Oyo State Government, Mr. Nathaniel Oke, to respond to the motion on time.
At the resumed hearing of the matter at Court 1, counsel to the state government filed a motion seeking for an extension of time to respond to the application filed by the former governor.
Counsel to Senator Ajimobi raised no objection to the motion for
extension of time but however asked the court to order that status quo
be maintained on the land, adding that the status quo as at February 13
when he filed the motion was that the land belonged to the former
governor.
This submission did not go down well with the counsel to the state
government who argued that the status quo as at the time the
application was filed was the revocation of the land which he stated
was revoked on February 10 while the former governor’s application was
filed on February 13.
Justice Abimbola in his ruling on the matter ordered the counsels to
advise their clients not go to or take any action on the said land
pending the determination of the pending motion.
The court further ordered the counsel to the state government to file
the defence within 10 days and that the petitioner must respond within
seven days of being served the response.
He adjourned the matter till March 30 for all parties to file all the necessary papers before the court.