Akin Oyedele, Ibadan

The incident, which occurred minutes before the court session began, became the second since the proceedings involving Ladoja and his opponents started at the Court of Appeal.

It will be recalled that some of the former governor痴 supporters were stripped naked within the precincts of the court in a similar attack on February 21, with the police unable to salvage the situation.

A Peoples Democratic Party leader in the state, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, had shortly before the Tuesday incident arrived at the courtroom with a retinue of aides.

The incident occurred when opponents of Ladoja, who before the incident had taken a standing position, ordered some of the former governor痴 loyalists to vacate their seats in a bid to secure seats for themselves in the crowded courtroom.

When it appeared that the order was rebuffed, the men resorted to pushing and shoving.

Security was tight outside the courtroom with the presence of about 50 riot and regular policemen who denied many people entrance to the court premises.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal has dismissed the objection raised by the 18 lawmakers loyal to Adedibu against the application of Ladoja in which he sought the leave of the court to be joined as an interested party in the pending appeal by the former Speaker of the House, Mr. Adeolu Adeleke, and another lawmaker, Mr. Titilola Dauda.

The former speaker had appealed the December 28 ruling of Justice Olagoke Ige of an Ibadan High Court, which dismissed the suit by Adeleke challenging the impeachment process initiated by his colleagues to remove Ladoja from office.

Relying on the provisions of Section 188 (10) of the 1999 Constitution, which ousted the jurisdiction of the court on impeachment matters, Justice Ige declined jurisdiction in the matter.

While the proceedings lasted, the former governor did not join as applicant/respondent.

The former speaker headed for the appeal court, which gave rise to the application by Ladoja to now be joined in the matter as an interested party.

In a unanimous ruling on Tuesday, Justices John Afolabi, Aminat Augie and Ifunanya Udom-Azogu, held that Ladoja痴 application was in order as he was the aggrieved party in the matter whose interest was central to the entire suit.

Justice Augie, who read the leading ruling, set the tone for others when she punctured the arguments canvassed by the counsel to the 18 lawmakers, Mr. Christopher Ayanlaja (SAN), including those put forward by Mr. S. Ajewole on behalf of the House of Assembly.

Upholding the arguments of the counsel to Ladoja, Mr. Yusuf Ali (SAN), the judge said that the further affidavit filed by Ali to correct the initial inadvertent error on the date cited as the date Justice Ige delivered his ruling was in order at it was deemed to have corrected the defective one.

She also dismissed the argument suggesting that Ladoja jumped the gun by not applying first to the lower court for joinder before coming to the higher court and that he chose to seek political solution to stave off the impeachment saga while others fought his brief.

Augie said, 展hether he (Ladoja) was sleeping while the proceedings lasted at the lower court or whether he filed application for joinder after one or 100 days after the case was decided at the lower court will not deter this court from doing justice to it.・

She added that Section 243, which confers the right of appeal on an applicant from the decision of a high court, did not specify a time frame within which such appeal could be filed.

By virtue of the pending appeal before the court in respect of the proceedings and processes of the lower court, she again faulted Ayanlaja痴 argument that the application was defective because the ruling of the lower court was not attached to Ali痴 application.

She said, 典here is no pressing need to have the ruling attached to the application. The era of lording technicalities over substantiality is over. The path of technicalities had so far been overgrown by weeds.・

As the central figure in the impeachment saga, Augie held further that Ladoja had shown sufficient proof that his interest was pivotal to the pending appeal, saying the respondents had not convinced the court on how their interest would be jeopardised if he were joined.

She said, 展ithout him (Ladoja), there would have been no case brought before Justice Ige. There is no reason why he should be shut out. The application is granted.・

In a related development, the appeal by three pro-Ladoja lawmakers against the ruling of Justice Moshood Abass was on Tuesday struck out by the appellate court following the withdrawal of the suit by counsel to the lawmakers, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).

The lawmakers had earlier withdrawn the application for stay of further proceedings filed before Justice Abass to prevent him from going ahead with the case pending the determination of the appeal.

The decision of Justice Abass to assume jurisdiction in the case reassigned to him from Justice M. Bolaji-Yusuff had given rise to the appeal by the lawmakers before it was terminated on Tuesday.

In withdrawing the application of stay filed before Justice Abass, Olanipekun said his clients had decided to abide by his decision to press on with the case and would want it done expeditiously.

Justice Afolabi of the Court of Appeal did not however award any cost demanded by counsel to the Acting Chief Judge, Mr. Tunde Oluponna, who was represented by a lawyer from his chambers, Miss. F. Aderemi.

The Punch, Wednesday March 29, 2006