From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
An Oyo State High Court, sitting in Ibadan, the state capital, has extended the restraining order against the Oyo State House of Assembly not to remove the deputy governor of the state, Rauf Olaniyan.
The presiding judge, Justice Ladiran Akintola, extended the restraining order for one day when the matter, which was listed for hearing, came up before him on Tuesday, saying the ruling that the he gave on June 29,2022 that status quo should be maintained on the impeachment proceedings of the deputy governor subsists.
The matter first came up before the court on Tuesday June 28. But the presiding judge had to adjourn the case to the following day, June 29 for hearing because only the counsel of the claimant was present in the court. The following day, counsel to all the parties were present. Counsel to the defendants, however, told the court that he was served the motion on notice at the close of work on Tuesday June 28, and asked for more time for his clients to respond to the application.
At the proceedings on Tuesday, July 5, Chief Afolabi Fashanu (SAN) appeared for the Olaniyan (Claimant), while Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye (SAN) led the legal team of the three defendants to the court
 The defendants are the Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly (first defendant), Oyo State House of Assembly(second defendant), and the Clerk of the House of Assembly (third defendant) in the matter.
The restraining order followed an application for interlocutory injunctions filed before the court last week by Olaniyan’s counsel, Fashanu, for the status quo to remain, pending the hearing of the suit. He had argued that it was imperative for the court to grant the application for interim injunction that would restrain the House of Assembly from taking any step in pursuant of the impeachment suit. He appealed that the court should allow the application for the status quo to remain, pending the hearing so that the application would not be a waste.
The court had held that all impeachment processes of the deputy governor be put on hold, saying the status-quo must be maintained, pending the hearing of the application for interlocutory injunctions. The case was then adjourned to July 5 for hearing.
But at the court yesterday, Fashanu said he received scanned copies of the response of the defendants to the suit late last week Friday. And that the scanned copies were not very clear, which prevented him from preparing his reply to the response of the defendants.
Kalajaiye, however, did not wait for Fashanu to ask for adjournment before he stood up and argued vehemently against any adjournment, describing such as a tactic to delay hearing of the matter. After heated argument between the two leading counsel, they agreed with the court to adjourn the case to today for hearing, while the claimant’s counsel promised that he would file his reply to the response of the defendants this morning. Kalajaiye also prayed the court to vacate the restraining order.
Justice  Akintola, however, adjourned the case to today and extended the injunction till today as well.
The impeachment move was initiated after the deputy governor, a retired permanent secretary, dumped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) as a result of purported frosty relationship between him and the governor, Seyi Makinde.
The letter that initiated the impeachment move was dated June 9, 2022, and was received same day in the Office of the Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin. It was entitled: ‘Petition and Notice of Allegations of the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Engineer Rauf Olaniyan.’
The letter surfaced barely two weeks after Olaniyan dumped PDP for APC. In the petition read during a plenary, 24 lawmakers levelled five allegations against Olaniyan, bordering on gross misconduct, abuse of office, financial recklessness, abandonment of office and official duty, as well as insubordination and other offences.
The Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin, in his reaction after the letter was read, had noted that the petition met the two-third requirements to initiate the impeachment process against the deputy governor. He said the lawmakers would give the deputy governor a seven-day ‘grace period’ to respond to the allegations, which would end on Wednesday June 22. He, however, warned that failure to respond to the allegations within seven days could lead to the commencement of impeachment move.
But the deputy governor responded to the allegations within four days after receipt of the query from the lawmakers.