The Osun State High Court sitting in Iragbiji has set aside the White Paper and Gazette through which the state government recognised the Lagbua family as the fifth ruling house entitled to the Aragbiji of Iragbiji stool.
Justice G.O. Lawal gave the judgment in Suit No. HIR/3/25 filed by Chief Salawu Kayode Fatai, Chief Wale Olateju Oyedokun, Prince Kola Yekeen Afolabi and Prince Adeyinka Niyi Adebisi for themselves and on behalf of the Ajibode, Ogunmolu, Osungbemi and Arodoye ruling houses.
The dispute followed the state government’s decision to revisit the report of the Justice Aderibigbe Judicial Panel of Inquiry, which had recommended the inclusion of the Lagbua family as a ruling house in the Aragbiji chieftaincy. The recommendation had earlier been rejected by the government, with the rejection published in Osun State Gazette No. 7, Volume 23 of 4 April 2013.
The plaintiffs challenged the government’s power to reopen the matter more than a decade later and reverse its earlier position without constituting another panel or committee and without giving the affected ruling houses an opportunity to make representations before a fresh decision was taken.
They also asked the court to determine whether the governor could lawfully authorise another White Paper approving a recommendation which the government had previously considered and rejected, arguing that any reconsideration capable of affecting their interests must comply with the requirements of fair hearing.
In its judgment, the court granted the plaintiffs’ reliefs and set aside the decision reportedly taken by the Osun State Executive Council at its meeting of 29 January 2025, approving the Lagbua family as the fifth ruling house in the Aragbiji chieftaincy. It consequently nullified the new White Paper and Gazette issued pursuant to that decision.
The court treated the government’s 2013 rejection of the Aderibigbe Panel’s recommendation and the subsequent attempt to reverse that position as distinct governmental decisions, with the latter subject to applicable legal requirements, including procedural fairness. The plaintiffs had argued that the government could not, after allowing its gazetted position to stand for about 12 years, reverse it in a manner prejudicial to them without giving them an opportunity to be heard.
With the judgment, the 2025 decision recognising Lagbua as the fifth ruling house and the instruments issued to give effect to it have been nullified at the trial court level, marking another turn in the long-running dispute over the ruling houses entitled to participate in the selection of the Aragbiji of Iragbiji.