The President, Ondo State Customary Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice E.A Alade has commissioned the Customary Court, Ikun Akoko Commission Court at lkun Akoko, in Akoko South West local government area of Ondo State.
In her speech during the commissioning, Hon. Justice Alade urged the community to file their cases in the court; that failure to do so may force the court to close down.
She said” I urged the people of the community and it’s environs to file their cases in the court. Failure to do so may allowed the court to close down, as government can’t pay for the people that are not working”.
Hon. Alade emphasized that the Court have a lot of areas to cover for the benefit of the people in community.
” The Court have a lot of areas to cover. People in the area can do their affidavit, filed their divorce letter, to recover debit, land matters in the rural area, for probate, criminal matters and others. This was the reason the court was made grade A instead of grade B”, she said.
She enjoined people of the community to cooperate with members of staff as to achieve the purpose of setting up the court in the area.
Hon. Alade stated further that, the Customary Court in the state is headed by the President of the Customary Court of Appeal, not by the Chief Judge of the state or by the Ministry of Justice.
Any request to the court should be channel directly to the President of the Customary Court of Appeal.
In his welcome address, the Royal father of the town, the Olokun of Ikun Akoko, HRH, Oba( Pastor) Micheal Adedoyin Olokunbola rejoice with the people of the community for making the long dreams come to reality.
Oba Olokunbola said,” lkun Akoko once had a functional Customary Court which was established the same year with other neighbouring towns in Akoko land during the administration of the Western Region.
A lot of landmarks judicial decisions was taken in the court.
But somewhere along the line, the activities of the court became so low despite the patronage by the locals, which disallowed the court to function due to none assignment of judicial officers to the court and the court eventually went to oblivion”.
Oba Olokunbola said, the entire people of lkun Akoko were grateful to the administration of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN for listening to their pleas and returned the service of the Customary Court to the town.
” We’re grateful to the current people oriented administration led by Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN, the executive governor of Ondo State, for listening to our pleas and returned the service of this important Customary Court to our town.
The town had embarked on a lot of community help projects such as building and provision of basic facilities that could enhance the effective take off of the court”, he said.
However, the President of Ikun Progressive Union (IPU) Ikun Akoko, Elder Titus Olaniran Orimijupa, called on sons and daughters both at home and abroad to come home and develop the ancient community.
In a chat with Focus Magazine during the commissioning of the court, he said, it is by joining hands together by the sons and daughters of the town that will allowed rapid development in the community.
Orimijupa said, “youths in the town should be committed and follow the footsteps of their role model.
The town had produced more professor and academia. All of them attended local schools. Youths of today have a greater opportunity and they must make use of it”, he said.