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The Federal High
Court, Ibadan, has fixed Monday, February 14, for hearing on an
application for sanction against Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo
State, for alleged contempt of court. It has also fixed the same day
for the hearing on his prayer to vacate the court order that stopped
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising
him as the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) for the 2011 election.

Represented by
Richard Akinjide, former Attorney-General and Minister of justice, the
governor requested the court to reverse its earlier order which had
resulted to the removal of his name from the list of contenders for the
April poll.

However, proceeding
at the court could not effectively progress on Thursday when an
application seeking court’s punitive measure against the governor was
to be heard.

Oluwarotimi
Akeredolu, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and
lead counsel to the aggrieved members of the PDP, who got injunction
against the candidacy of the governor, wanted the court to commit Mr
Alao-Akala to prison for describing the order as ‘an height of
frivolity’.

For hours, lawyers
only argued forth and back without progress. The crisis was spurred by
Mr Akinjide’s inability to file a counter-application to the prayer
against his client. He told the court that he was only served with
copies of Mr Akeredolu’s application late Wednesday, but also prayed
the court to hear the two matters together for speedy delivery.

Lateef Fagbemi,
counsel to Dejo Afolabi, state chairman of the PDP, who was also joined
in the suits, equally told the court that he got the application late
Wednesday.

Despite their
claims of late service, Justice Johnson Shakarho, said that the counsel
should have asked the court for time to study and react to the content
of the application.

He expressed
disappointment with Mr Akinjide, Mr Fagbemi, and PDP counsel for
allowing Mr Akeredolu to move his motion for committal to prison
against Mr Akala when they knew he could rule against them.

Effort by Mr
Fagbemi to make the judge see the matter as special fell on deaf hear
as Mr Shakarho insisted that he would work at his own pace, saying no
case is more important than others.

After much argument
and counter argument, the court adjourned till Monday for the hearing
on the contempt and vacation of order, but told counsel that the case
is not likely to be completed e next week.

Panic in the state

Schools closed
abruptly in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Thursday, when parents
and guardians rushed to pick their wards over rumour of Mr Alao-Akala’s
attempt to use children for sacrifice to achieve his second term
ambition as the state governor.

Another version of
the story alleges that the governor was distributing indomie noodles to
school children. A third version of the story said some people died
after eating from bean cakes distributed by the governor’s men.
Perpetrators of the rumour say the governor needed a certain number of
people to use for rituals for his mission, and that anyone who eats the
distributed items will end up on the ritual list. The rumour which was
all over Ibadan had created panic among the people, this made the
government to issue a statement to calm the situation.

In a statement to
douse the rumour, Dotun Oyelade, special adviser to the governor on
public communications, described the rumour as shocking. “Government is
shocked that people can go to any length to blackmail and cause
confusion in order to gain political advantage. Our people just want to
fend for their daily bread without such deliberate harassment.

“Such lies are
wicked because Oyo State is peaceful and our poor parents and their
wards and children are being unnecessarily traumatised by those few who
have volunteered to work for reckless and desperate politicians.

We strongly advise
our people to go about their normal duties and discountenance these
latest antics by political desperados and their hirelings. It is the
handiwork of politicians who have failed in their bids for political
relevance,” he said.

The governor’s
campaign team, in a press briefing, also challenged the peddlers of the
rumour to come out and show them where the bean cake was served or any
household where an individual died on account of the rumour.