Stakeholders in the Aree of Iree stool in Boripe local government area of Osun State have been warned against disregarding a valid court judgment over the kingship.
DAILY POST recalls that Justice M. O. Awe of an Osun State High Court in Osogbo, in a judgment delivered over the illegal emergence of Prince Muritala Oyelakin, unequivocally declared that the stool of Aree remained vacant and no one should parade himself as the Aree of Iree.
Justice Awe, while delivering the judgment on May 14, 2024, had ordered the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke against installing Prince Oyelakin and releasing staff of authority of the town to him.
The court had also barred Prince Oyelakin from parading himself as the Aree until the substantive matter presently in court is done with.
Reacting to remarks by some statements in some quarters that someone is presently occupying the throne of Aree, a Prince from Olubonku ruling House of Iree, Prince Ali Afolabi, warned the people against flouting the orders of the court.
Making references to ongoing separate cases in suit numbers: HOS/ 20/2024 and Hos/52/2024 before two State High Courts in Osogbo, Afolabi said it would be embarrassing for Iree if stakeholders continue to flagrantly disregard valid pronouncements of courts even when the state government who are joined in the case and ordered not to install Prince Oyelakin had retrained itself by not presenting staff of office to him.
Afolabi, in a statement issued on Saturday, harped on the need for sons and daughters of Iree to respect the rule of law and ensure that all they do are not clashing with the dictates of subsisting valid court judgments.
He said, “It has come to my notice and to other respectable leaders in our valuable town of Iree that some stakeholders have been disregarding with impunity a subsisting court judgment on Aree stool by unlawfully ascribing the royal office of the land to someone who has been barred by the court to desist from parading himself as Aree of Iree.
“It is more worrisome that some of these defaulters are people who should know the importance of obeying the rule of law in a democratic society like ours. It should be on record that two separate court judgments have declared that there is no Aree of Iree as at present until the current litigations are validly addressed by competent courts.”
He held that for peace and development to reign, there was a need to relegate injustice and immunity in order to average the wrath of the law.
He charged all stakeholders in the town to respect court orders and deviate from actions and utterances capable of contempt of court.
