The Ogun High Court, yesterday, overturned the demotion of 75 coronet Obas by Governor Dapo Abiodun on February 6, 2020, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The 75 coronet obas had challenged their demotion by governor Abiodun and had sought the courts to nullify the action.

Other respondents in the suit were the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry.

Delivering judgment on the suit filed by the obas, Justice Abiodun Akinyemi affirmed their installation, appointment and promotion, declaring their demotion as unlawful, null and void.

Akinyemi held that the traditional rulers were not given fair hearing by the review committee set up by the state government to look into the issue of their appointment by the previous administration.

He also said the government failed to convey the sack of the traditional rulers to them through the appropriate individual or authority.

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The judge ordered the state government to immediately pay the entitlements and remunerations of all the coronet obas from the time of installation.

Earlier in the proceeding, the Egba Traditional Council, led by its counsel, Mr Afolabi Fashanu (SAN), had filed an application seeking to be joined in the suit.

(Continued on www.sunnewsonline.

Justice Akinyemi, in his ruling, dismissed the application, saying that he found no merit in the application, which he described as an attempt to arrest the judgment of the court.

He, therefore, awarded a personal cost of N250,000 on Fashanu, saying that as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, he ought to know better than to file such an application.

Akinyemi said that since the council wasn’t a party in the matter, the application was frivolous and an abuse of court process.