The Justice A.B. AbdulKareem led Commission of Inquiry into the disputed Awo Chieftaincy dispute has struck out the Memorandum brought before it by the Akindolu family of Iragberi for lack of competence and substance, saying that the dismissed Memorandum was not in tandem with the dictate of the panel.

He added that the Commission has template guiding its conduct. The Panel maintained that the Commission was set up to hear the complaints arose from the disputed Chieftaincy declaration of Awo Kingdom in Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, noting that the Commission has the right to hear all the complaints of the parties but Akindolu Memorandum did not follow the laid-down rules and regulations by the Commission, particularly, the time stipulated for submission of such memorandum.

While striking out the Memorandum on Thursday at his public sitting in Osogbo, Justice Abdulkareem declared that the Commission was a fact-finding panel which has limited time for its assignment. He further explained that the Panel had made it abundantly clear during its inauguration of Monday October 31, 2016 that the parties must follow the laid down rules of the Commission of Inquiry.

Meanwhile, the Memorandum dated 16th of January, 2017 and submitted on 18th of January, 2017 was orchestrated by the First Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, Chief Layi Ogunrinade through Mr. Oyediji Ogundiran and Kehinde Ajala of the Federal Ministry of Works, Osogbo office, by their Legal Counsel, Mr. Ayo Laogun. But the Head of the Akindolu Family, Pa Olowoeyo Akinlaja had earlier told the 1978 Justice Akin Apara Panel of Inquiry on the Awo disputed Chieftaincy matter, that their family had relocated to neighbouring town of Iragberi where they took another Cheiftaincy title and that they were not entitled to lay claim on Alawo stool again.

Speaking on the Commission’s ruling, the Counsel to the one of the parties in the matter, the Abioye ruling House, Barrister Tawfeeq Ibikunle of Adewale Afolabi & Co, maintained that ruling of the Commission on Akindolu’s Memorandum was in order, stressing that the said Memorandum was totally incompetent and not in tune with the specification of the panel.

Barrister Ibikunle insisted that the Commission was set up to hear the complaints of the parties in the Chieftaincy matter affecting the ancient town by way of Memorandum and Rejoinder and all the paragraphs in the Akindolu’s Family Memorandum did not answer the Memorandum of Jogunade Family that initiated the original matter before the Commission.

Speaking further on the alleged lying under oath by Mr. Saliu Olanipekun of Jogunade family over service of their rejoinder to the parties in the matter, the lawyer said that lying under oath was a criminal offence, which was liable to imprisonment. He explained that Mr. Olanipekun later denied the service of its rejoinder to the parties but filed its rejoinder before the Commission, adding that if the parties matter was not duly served, it goes beyond the power of the commission and the panel would not be able to move further on its duty.

In his reaction on the matter after the Commission’s ruling, a Prince from Abioye Ruling House, Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman, lauded the Panel for its thorough and diligent job on the Chieftaincy matter in dismissing the Akindolu’s Memorandum, saying that members of Akindolu family have been trying to be enlisted into the Alawo’s ruling family through the back door since 1967. The panel therefore adjourned the matter till May 8, 2017 for the continuation of the hearing of the matter.

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