The legal obstacles preventing the installation of new Attah of Ayede has been cleared as a High Court sitting in Ikole Ekiti, dismissed the suit filed by one Mr Ore Omotoso and six others against the selection of Prince Adebayo Mumuni as the Attah of Ayede Ekiti.
Consequently, the state government has presented a certificate of recognition to Mumuni as the Oba-elect, with a promise that he would be presented with the Staff of Office soon.
The 57-year-old Oba-elect holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mechanical Engineering from The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
Delivering his judgement, Justice Abiodun Adesodun refused all the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs, described them as “frivolous and lacking in legal validity.”
Blueprint recalls that shortly after the selection of the Oba-elect in 2011, the plaintiffs had approached the court and seeking the following reliefs:
“A declaration that the substitution of Mr Akinola Falade and Mr Olu Iletogun with Mr Sule Osasona Mr Dada Babalola as Warrant Chiefs to perform the statutory duties of the kingmakers in the town, was illegal and wrongful.”
But Justice Adesodun held that there was no enough evidence before him to prove that both Falade and Iletogun were shortchanged in the substitution process.
He said: “All the reliefs sought by the claimants contained in the paragraphs 34 of their statement are hereby refused. The claimants’ claims failed and are hereby refused.”
The stool had become vacant following the death of Oba Joseph Orisagbemi in 2009.
