Date: 2012-03-17

The Appeal Court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, has sentenced the deposed monarch of Etan town in Ekiti Local Government Area of the state, Joshua Aina, to three months imprisonment. Aina was said to be parading himself as the traditional ruler of the town even after his deposition.

The Court of Appeal had in June 2010 declared the Eletan stool vacant when one of the contestants to the throne, Ezekiel Ogunleye, filed a suit challenging the veracity of his obaship.

Sequel to this judgment, Ogunleleye was appointed the Eletan but was unable to have the staff and other paraphernalia of office as Aina reportedly intended to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

As Aina persisted in parading himself as the Eletan, Ogunleye, through his lawyers, Messers Dayo Akinlaja &Co., instituted a committal proceeding in the High Court in September, 2010. 

But the court refused to commit Aina to prison making Ogunleye to head for the Appeal Court again.

The Appeal Court then set aside the ruling of the trial court and committed the respondent to prison having held that he was guilty of contempt of court.

In his lead judgment, Justice George Mbata, condemned in strong terms the unrepentant posture of the respondent in disobeying the order of the court. 

He said the respondent ought to have "lied low and soberly pursued his appeal, praying for the decision to be overturned before he bounces back."

The judge, who noted that the respondent had not filed a valid appeal, said that the lower court ought to have enforced the judgment of the Court of Appeal by committing him to prison rather than "tear the judgment into pieces."  

In the court's enrolment order signed by the Presiding Justice of the court, T. Abdulhai and Deputy Chief Registrar, Ilyasu Wali, reads: "That the respondent, Prince Johua O. Aina, is hereby held for flagrant disobedience of the subsisting order of this court in Exhibit EA01 and EA04. 

"That Joshua O. Aina is accordingly committed for contempt and hereby sent to prison, where he shall remain for a period of three  months or until he purges himself of the contempt. 

"That the Inspector-General of Police is hereby directed to give effect to this order, each party to bear his costs."