An Appeal Court sitting in Ibadan, yesterday, dismissed the appeal filed by the former Oyo State Deputy Governor, Engr. Rauf Olaniyan against his wrongful impeachment on July 18, 2022, over allegations of gross misconduct and financial impropriety.
A 7-man panel led by Justice Christopher Kayode found Olaniyan guilty of the allegations and the Oyo State House of Assembly ratified his removal.
Olaniyan, through his lawyer, Chief Afolabi Fasanu, SAN, filed a suit before Justice Bayo Taiwo of an Oyo State High Court asking the court to nullify the impeachment.
He argued that constitution of the panel by the then Chief Judge, Justice Munta Abimbola was improper and unconstitutional; and that the House of Assembly failed to adhere to the constitutional provision of 2/3 majority of the members signing the impeachment notice.
But the lower court, on September 1, 2022, declared the impeachment constitutional and in order.
Olaniyan, thereafter filed an appeal marked CA/IB/136/2023, asking it to upturn the decision of the High Court and declare his impeachment illegal and unconstitutional.
Chief Afolabi Fasanu, SAN, Kazeem Gbadamosi, SAN, and Adebayo Ojo, SAN, represented him.
In their judgment read by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, which was adopted by Justices Yargata Nimpar and B. F. Suberu, the three-man panel of judges agreed with the decision of the trial court that the procedure for the removal of Mr Olaniyan as former Deputy Governor of Oyo state, “is primarily the internal affairs of the Oyo State House of Assembly.”
The House of Assembly and its Clerk had argued that: “It is trite law that the court is not to be subjected to the indignity of the deletion or striking down of any of its parts. We pray Your Lordships to reject the present invitation to introduce a dichotomy between voice votes and other systems of voting into the 1st respondent’s rules of procedure and by implication to the grundnorm, that is, the 1999 Constitution (As Amended)”.
