“It’s Unconstitutional” — Court Rules Against ‘State Of Osun’ Nomenclature

A high court sitting in Osogbo, Osun State capital, has repealed the naming of Osun state to state of Osun by immediate past governor of the state Rauf Aregbesola.

The governor had, in furtherance of his drive and campaign, for the “restructuring” of Nigeria and “true federalism”, in 2011, renamed Osun state as “State of Osun”.

The idea was tailored after the style of American states which are referred to, for instance, as “state of Texas” rather than “Texas state”.

But in his ruling on Thursday, the presiding judge, Mathias Agboola, described the renaming as ordinary “artistic coloration” with no constitution backing.

The renaming of the state became a subject of litigation, after a lawyer in the state, Kanmi Ajibola, instituted a legal action against the state government over the levy of a personal tax of N5.3 million imposed on him by the state Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Ajibola averred that the levy was illegal because the law upon which the tax was issued was made by “The House of Assembly of State of Osun”.

He described the tax demanded as “indictive, punitive and speculative” because he was always critical Aregbesola views.

The official handle of the state government, @stateofosun, tweeted the judgment on Thursday.

M. Popoola, the state counsel, had prayed the court to dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.

He disclosed that Ajibola didn’t exhaust all necessary means of settlement before approaching the court.

Delivering judgement, Agboola upheld the submissions of the applicant that the “State of Osun” is unconstitutional.

He warned lawyers to be wary of the legal implications of referring to Osun State as “State of Osun”.

However, the judge upheld the submission of the defence that Ajibola should have sought other means of settlement provided by the tax law before filing a suit before the court.

Ajibola had filed a similar case in 2017 and the Osun state high court sitting in Ilesa had declared that the renaming of Osun state as “State of Osun” by Aregbesola was illegal and therefore, null and void.

Yinka Afolabi, the judge, ruled that “the law and its makers were unknown to the 1999 constitution”.

The state government appealed.