PDP cries out over appointment of Osun CJ, Head of Service

Osun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged Obas and religious leaders in the state to prevail on Gov. Rauf Aregbesola not to carry out his reported plans to appoint the Chief Judge and Head of Service of the state from Lagos.

The party in a statement issued by its Head of Legal Services, Otunba Sunday Ojo Williams on sunday said the party had been reliably informed that Aregbesola and Senator Bola Tinubu had resolved to appoint Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the probate division of Lagos High court as Chief Judge of Osun state.

Justice Oyewole who was made a judge on May 24, 2001 by Tinubu is currently number 33 in Lagos High court and has never served in the judiciary of Osun state.

The incumbent Chief Judge of Osun state, Justice George Olaniyi Ojo is due for retirement on November 8, 2012.

The PDP said it was unheard of that a governor would want to bypass all known administrative, legal and moral norms to impose outsiders on the Judiciary and the civil service stressing that all stakeholders in the state must rise up to resist the plans.

"Justice Oyewole is not just number 33 in the Lagos High Court, he has never served in the judiciary of Osun state where he has at least eight judges as his senior at the bar and the bench. We also learnt the ACN governor has plans to enthrone one of the jobbers in his camp in Lagos as Head of Service after aborting his current strange, illegal process to elect one from among permanent secretaries in Osun state.

"All these steps, we want to say go against the well established legal and administrative cum civil service conventions of career progression.

" We appeal to traditional rulers, religious leaders, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Osun state Judicial Service Commission and the Civil Service Commission to rise up now and insist on the protection as well as preservation of the time honoured tradition that has nurtured the services over the years.

"The judiciary is the last hope of the common man and any succession plan that will compromise its independence and integrity should not be condoned.

"Osun state in the last one and a half years has become almost a pariah in the comity of states in Nigeria and a butt of cruel jokes among people who believe in the virtues of freedom, self- respect, decency and self- governing against the shenanigans of crude native imperialists and their hare-brained surrogates," the PDP said.