The Chief Judge of Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, Justice Abiodun Adebara, has assured the people of Igbaja in the Ifelodun local government area that a resident competent judge will be posted to the Igbaja Judicial Division immediately after the National Judicial Council (NJC) approves the request of the community.
Justice Adebara gave his assurance when he led some judicial officials from the state judiciary, including the state Chief Registrar, Mrs Ibijoke Olawoyin, to the division.
The jurist urged the people of the Igbaja community to ensure that they provide befitting courtrooms, judges’ chambers, and quarters for the judge and adequate security when the judge is eventually posted.
According to him, a judge was initially posted to the Igbaja division but was later withdrawn sometime in 2012 due to unsuitable logistics.
Justice Adebara said the court has to be resuscitated to bring it back to the standard of today’s high court.
He commended the Elese of Igbajaland, Alhaji Ahmed Babalola Awuni Arepo the Third, the Jagunmolu of Igbominaland, Alhaji Raheem Oladimeji, and other chiefs and citizens of the community for their relentless efforts to reposition the community and for ensuring that justice is brought to the grassroots, thereby avoiding situations where cases that ordinarily could be handled in the Igbaja Judicial Division are transferred to Ilorin, the state capital.
Justice Adebara appreciated the former Chief Judge of the State, Retired Justice Fola Gbadeyan, whom he described as his mentor, for his foresight in citing the high court complex at Igbaja, which he commissioned on July 9, 2009, when he was the chief judge.
In his remarks at the event, Justice Gbadeyan commended Justice Adebara and urged the people of the Igbaja community to ensure that they upgrade the Igbaja High Court to a modern standard and provide adequate comfort for the resident judge that would be posted.
He described Alhaji Raheem Oladimeji as a community leader who has the love of his community deeply in his heart.
According to him, he is the first judge in Nigeria to serve for thirty years uninterrupted in the high court, and he stressed the need for judicial officials to uphold the rule of law.
Justice Gbadeyan commended the forthrightness of the present Chief Judge of the State and urged him to be up and doing in his judicial assignments.
In his remarks at the event, the Jagunmolu of Igbaja Land and Arogundade of Lagos, Alhaji Raheem Oladimeji, commended the State Chief Judge for coming to the aid of the community by resuscitating the Igbaja division of the high court and promised to ensure that the community would do everything within their reach to upgrade the court to an enviable standard, as well as Chief Peter Olorunishola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), an indigene of Igbaja.
