From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
An Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun has said the Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba AbdurRasheed Adewale Akanbi, lacked the power to prevent an Islamic cleric, Shayk Khalifa Asiru Imran, from performing his fundamental rights of practising his religion.
Justice A. L. Adegoke, in a judgment delivered on October 11, 2021, held that the monarch has no power under Nigerian Constitution or any other laws to deny, prevent, refuse, reject, restrict the Applicant’s Fundamental Right to practice his Islamic religion anywhere in Nigeria, as entrenched in Section 34, 35, 36 and 38 of the 1999 Constitution (as Amended).
The applicant, in a suit No HIK/25/2019, sought an order of the court declaring as wrongful, unlawful and unconstitutional, his prevention from observing prayer at Iwo central Mosque and at the Eid praying ground.
A copy of the judgment obtained by Daily Sun also stopped the respondents from arresting, detaining and restricting the applicant’s fundamental rights in Iwo Central Mosque.
The respondents are the Osun commissioner of police, Oluwo of Iwo, members of Rehistered Trustees of Iwo Central Mosque, who are Shayk Hasim Ejalonibu, Chief Abiola Ogundokun, Alhaji Jimoh Alake and Barr Tawfiq Ishola Tewogbade.