Court declares the name 'State of Osun' illegal

An Osun State High Court sitting in Ilesa has said the changing of ‘Osun State’ to ‘State of Osun’ by the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola is illegal, Punchng reports.

Justice Yinka Afolabi, while delivering the judgment on Thursday in a case instituted by Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, Ilesa branch, Mr. Kanmi Ajibola, challenging the legality of the “State of Osun Land Use Charge Law,” held that the law and its makers were unknown to the 1999 Constitution.




Aregbesola had changed the name of the state from ‘Osun State’ to ‘State of Osun’ in 2011; but the NBA chairman, who is a human rights activist, approached the court in 2016 and asked the court to declare as null and void all transactions done by the state with the name ‘State of Osun’.

Justice Afolabi threw out all the arguments by the State Attorney-General, Dr. Basiru Ajibola, who was the counsel for the governor and the state government and that of the Director of Legal Services, Mrs. Rachel Ojinni, as he granted all the seven prayers of the plaintiff.




Ajibola said the state government would appeal the verdict at the Court of Appeal.