From Ekiti

An Ekiti High Court in Ado-Ekiti yesterday struck out an application by the Iye-Ekiti community to override the judgment of the Supreme Court by stopping the relocation of Ilejemeje Local Council Headquarters from the town to Eda-Oniyo.

The Supreme Court had in a judgment delivered on December 14, 2018 ordered the Ekiti State Government to relocate Ilejemeje Local Council headquarters to Eda Oniyo.

Justice Abiodun Adesodun, in his judgment, which lasted 18 minutes, ruled that counsel to Iye-Ekiti community, Mr. Kupolati, had approached a wrong court to seek redress over a judgment by the apex court.

According to him, both claims that Iye-Ekiti was not part of Supreme Court judgment and that the local council law being canvassed in his claim hold no water, saying that all were parties to Supreme Court judgment.

The judge said that the people of Iye-Ekiti community had come before a wrong court and that any dissatisfaction or fresh information ought to have been directed to the Supreme Court.

He told counsel to Iye-Ekiti community that if he believed that the local council law he was canvassing in his application was a necessary facilitator, he ought to have gone back to the Supreme Court instead of coming through a back-door.

Adesodun stated that there was no merit in it and awarded N250, 000 as cost in favour of the respondents.

But reacting to the judgment, Dr. Kayode Adetifa, a lawyer to Eda Oniyo community, said that the ruling was very straight forward to the effect that a high court could not review the judgment of the Supreme Court.

“As I said, the judgment is just that if you have any grievance against the judgment of the apex court, the law is settled. You can only go back to the Supreme Court if you are able to persuade it to change its mind based on your new documents or evidence that you want to adduce before it. Well, the court may go by your argument, but where you cannot do so, the judgment remains,” he said.

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