Magistrate Olusola Aluko, who ordered the arrest of a prominent traditional ruler in Osun State, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Akanbi, has withdrawn from the case. He says his decision became necessary after police failed to arrest the monarch since last year that he issued the bench warrant of arrest against Oba Akanbi.
At the court sitting in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State, on Friday, Magistrate Aluko announced his decision to ‘hands off’ the case because of the dimension it had taken.
Counsel to the plaintiff, Mr Soji Oyetayo, told the court that he had filed a notice seeking the leave of the court to withdraw the suit because his client had decided to discontinue the case owing to intervention of some eminent Nigerians in Osun State and some Yoruba leaders.
The Magistrate explained that he was not willing to listen to the counsels to the parties in the matter since he had already stepped down the substantive matter.
But counsel to the respondent, Mr Laide Yekini, pleaded with the Magistrate to listen to him and consider the notice of discontinuance of the matter brought before the court by his colleague.
The Magistrate insisted that he would not entertain the withdrawal of the case and the counsel to the respondent said he wanted the court to record it appropriately that a notice of withdrawal of the case was brought to the court and the judge refused to entertain it.
As a result of this, the Magistrate agreed to attend to the application seeking the withdrawal of the suit and the counsel to the plaintiff moved the application.
In his ruling, Magistrate Aluko said for the sake of consistency, he would not make any pronouncement on the withdrawal of the suit and that he would withdraw from the cease and refer the case back to the Chief Magistrate for further action. He adjourned the matter till February 15.
